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2 NEWS 12.11.2020 Satisfaction with pay-TV grows, but Android box users down PAUL COCKS GOVERNMENT will be injecting fresh cash to maintain its 25% shareholding in Bank of Valletta, as the bank looks set to approve a new share issue, Business- Today has learned. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna confirmed that the government had no intention of increasing or diluting its shareholding in BOV and would there- fore inject new cash to maintain its existing holding if a new share issue is approved. e issue is on the agends of the bank's annual general meeting to be held on 26 November. Resolution 4 on the agenda reads: at the rules of the Bank of Valletta Varia- ble Remuneration Share Plan ("Plan"), a summary of which is included in the Shareholders' Circular and a full version of which is available for inspection, as recommended by the directors be and are hereby approved; and that the Board of Directors be and is hereby authorised to (i) establish the Plan and to do all such acts and things as may be neces- sary or expedient to give effect to the Plan; and (ii) issue up to and including 14,596,232 shares from the authorised share capital of the Bank for the pur- pose of satisfying the obligations of the Bank that will ensue from the operation of the Plan, without first offering the same to shareholders in proportion to their then existing holdings. e share issue will bring BOV in line with the European Central Bank's call to all banks to strengthen their capital position so as to be able to support eco- nomic recovery efforts and measures in abid to mitigate the effects of COV- ID-19. As more businesses feel the brunt of the pandemic, many are turning to banks for loans, extensions or morato- ria on interest payments. e influx of new capital that a new share issue will bring to BOV will see the bank in a better position to accede to such requests. "It is customary for the government in such cases to maintain its holding and we will therefore be injecting new cap- ital into the deal if the share issue is ap- proved," he told BusinessToday. e actual value of the capital injec- tion will be known once the new share- holding structure is finalised. Government to inject cash in BOV holding following call for new share issue A perception survey carried out be- tween November 2019 and April 2020 among over 870 respondents has found a 10-point rise in households with a bun- dled pay-TV subscription in a bundle, up to 77% from 67% in 2017. A further 3% of respondents to the Mal- ta Communications Authority survey intend on purchasing a bundle-based TV subscription in the coming months. But 19% of survey respondents said they owned an IPTV-Android box, down 4 percentage points compared to 2017. 88% of those with an Android box be- lieve that what they get via this medium is a good alternative to standard pay-Tv, mainly because of a better channel line- up. Around 8% of survey respondents having a pay-Tv subscription have also indicated their intention of acquiring an IPTV-Android box over the next year. e share of respondents saying they are highly satisfied with pay-TV rose from 23% in 2017 to 56% in the 2020 survey. An additional 38% say they are satisfied with the quality of service. Just around 1% of survey respondents say they are high- ly dissatisfied with the service attributing 'Frequent Disconnections' as the main reason for their response. Whilst 44% of respondents do not know their monthly expenditure on the pay-TV service, the current survey shows more people knowledgeable on this variable than was the case in 2017. In fact, the share of survey respondents saying they are aware of their pay-TV monthly ex- penditure increased from 45% to 55%. Slightly more than half of the latter re- spondents consider their monthly pay- TV expenditure as reasonable. e main reason cited for not knowing their pay- TV expenditure was that the service is purchased in a bundle. 14% of survey respondents say they watch Internet-TV channels. However, compared to the 2017 survey, the current exercise shows a 20 percentage point drop in such respondents. 67% of respondents watching internet TV see this platform as a good alternative to Pay-Tv, up 37 per- centage points from 2017. Just less than half the respondents stat- ed that they did not have a DAB+ radio set, whilst 18%, representing an increase of 4 percentage points over 2017, said that they had the device. From those owing a DAB+ radio the majority (97%) of re- spondents have declared their satisfaction with its quality of service. Also, those who do have the radio; 45%, 30% and 33% said that their device was installed at home, in the car, and both at home and in car re- spectively. Finance minister Edward Scicluna said the government will be seeking to maintain a 25% shareholding in BOV

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