By Charlie Charalambous
CYBC CAME out fighting yesterday to dismiss growing criticism over its ad- driven World Cup coverage.
“There is a difference of opinion, but personally I don’t think it’s that bad. Is it better to have no interruptions, but not have all the matches shown live?” a defiant CyBC chairman Antonis Drakos told the Cyprus Mail.
Drakos was replying to outraged deputies and soccer fans, who had called on the state broadcaster to put the breaks on the commercials.
“We will continue to show adverts,” he insisted.
Earlier this week, the House Finance Committee told CyBC management to reconsider its approach, and pointed out they were violating newly-approved broadcasting regulations.
But the CyBC chairman is of the opinion that the row was over the number of adverts, not about scrapping them altogether.
“The House did not say we should stop, but that we should not have so many, and that we should limit interruptions to two segments in each half.”
Drakos also questioned whether splitting the screen between advertisements and football could at all be termed an interruption.
“It’s not exactly an interruption of the game, but there is a difference of opinion about what this means.”
It is now clear that the CyBC is not going to break advertising contracts, simply to please the viewers whose license fees keep the corporation afloat.
According to Drakos, CyBC expects to collect a tidy £240,000 from World Cup advertising revenue — not bad for six weeks’ work.
“We will make a substantial profit on the World Cup,” he said.
And the chairman was surprisingly upbeat about the corporation’s much- maligned World Cup commentators.
“I’m not saying we are doing the best coverage in the world, but we are doing the best anybody’s seen in Cyprus, despite the criticism,” said Drakos.
CyBC’s chief denies that the advertising blitz contravenes FIFA regulations and was sanguine about claims that the breaks were a breach of the local broadcasting law.
“I don’t believe we are going against FIFA regulations. There are no restrictions in the contract.
“On the question of whether there should be ads or not, the House is not the appropriate authority. The Interior Ministry is, and it hasn’t said anything.”
And despite threats by politicians to veto CyBC’s finances over the issue, the House yesterday approved the corporation’s £17.5 million budget in full.
