Former Net TV head Anton Attard appointed PBS chief executive

Along with head of news Natalino Fenech, and Editorial Board chairman Joe Pirotta, his trusted position inside the PN and the Office of the Prime Minster will consolidate the position of government’s men at the helm of public broadcasting.

Earlier this month, PBS withdrew a complaint to the Press Ethics Commission when MaltaToday and Illum reported that Attard had been selected to head PBS, while the selection process was still underway.

When in January 2010 sister paper Illum revealed that Attard’s name had been mentioned at Castille as a possible successor, Attard himself confirmed he had heard rumours that he was being touted as a replacement for Albert Debono.

Albert Debono’s contract as PBS CEO provided for a €39,610 yearly gross salary. He was also entitled for a performance bonus of not more than €6,600 per annum which would be paid only on the achievements of targets established by the Board of Directors on a yearly basis; free use of mobile phone and unlimited usage fees, a fuel allowance not exceeding €932 per annum, a communications allowance to a maximum of €394.50 to cover cost of cable and /or satellite television.

Attard led Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s media campaign in the 2008 election, taking care of every aspect of the Nationalist Party leader’s electoral campaign on the media.

He was the person who accompanied Nationalist candidate Jeffery Pullcino Orlando during his impromptu press conference in front of his land in Mistra exactly a week before the 8 March 2008 elections, when Opposition leader Alfred Sant had revealed that Pullicino Orlando had applied to develop a disco in a Natura 2000 site.

In 1998, Attard was behind the technical set-up of NET TV, the Nationalist Party’s television station, going for a high-end set-up which dwarfed Super One television, both in terms of picture clarity as well as in graphic content.

A few years later, in 2005, he left NET TV to launch Multiplus, a fledgling digital terrestrial television network with the express aim of taking on Melita Cable’s dominance in the television field.

But the company did not manage to attract more than a few thousand subscribers, which made the whole project unfeasible. In February 2008, telecoms company GO, which was keen to get a TV platform as soon as possible, took over Multiplus.