Cytavision ditches ‘expensive’ Eurosport

By Peter Stevenson

CYTAVISON has begun cutting costs by removing expensive programmes which have small viewing figures, including ESPN, Eurosport and Fashion TV, in their attempts to meet their budget.

Viewers wishing to tune in to watch the latest tennis match from the French Open at Roland Garros on Eurosport on Friday were left disappointed as the platform announced it would no longer be broadcasting the channel.

According to Chairman and member of the Cytavision board, Nicolas Georgiades after drawn-out negotiations with Eurosport to continue their cooperation, the decision was made that their asking price was too high.

“We are on a new platform now which enables us to see the viewing figures for each channel and with Eurosport asking us for €700,000 to renew their annual contract we decided it was too much for a channel that has far too few viewers,” he said.

The channel currently airs over 20 sports channels and Georgiades said that although he understood people’s objection to cutting off Eurosport in the middle of the French Open, the viewing figures all-year-round were not sufficient for the company to continue paying large amounts.

“We are currently trying to buy the rights to show the final on Cytavision because we understand our viewers are interested in the French Open,” he said.

Georgiades revealed that negotiations were ongoing with LTV, one of the island’s other subscription platforms that transmits through Cytavision amongst others, to reduce LTV’s charge from July 1.

“We are the main seller of LTV and due to the current financial situation we saw fit to ask them to reduce their price to accommodate the new circumstances on the island,” he added.

Georgiades said he felt that the channels new policy of removing expensive channels with low viewing figures and replacing them with fewer, better quality channels would benefit its 50,000 viewers.

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