NEWS | Wednesday, 23 July 2008

GO snatches Melita TV rights purchaser

Charlot Zahra

The move of the person who used to negotiate the TV rights for Melita Cable to arch-rival telecoms operator GO a few months ago has been kept hush-hush by both operators.
Business Today has learnt that Michele Dandria left Melita Cable last year after sixteen years at the company as programming and acquisition manager.
She has now joined GO as product manager TV, responsible for the negotiation of TV rights for the competition. She is flanked by Jack Mizzi, GO’s content manager, who is responsible for local sports acquisitions.
Dandria joined Melita way back in June 1991 when the cable company, had just started its operations in Malta and had not even started offering its services to customers.
When Business Today contacted Dandria for her comments about the matter, we were instead contacted by a GO spokesperson, who would not confirm the move.
“She is not a public figure, therefore we will not disclose the terms and conditions of her employment,” he told Business Today. He said it was “normal” for employees in the telecoms sector, like in any other activity, to switch from one company to the other.
Sources told Business Today that a “significant” number of employees had left Melita and joined GO after the arrival of the company’s new majority shareholders, UK-based equity firm GMT Group Communications Partners last year.
The impact of Dandria’s move to GO on the sporting rights acquisition market is yet to be ascertained, however, it is known that GO have managed to eat away some of the TV rights which were held traditionally held by Melita, particularly the English FA Cup and the matches of the British national football team.

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