Question mark over Premier League on LTV

MAJOR sports events appear to be bypassing Cyprus pay TV outlets with local subscriber channel LTV unable to secure the rights to Formula One this season and cable TV platform CyTAvision refusing to pay the fees to show this year’s French tennis Open.

Now a question mark hangs over whether LTV will have the rights to show English Premier League football for the 2013-2014 season.

Rumours increased over the weekend when subscribers’ received their monthly TV schedule magazine with no sign of any English football. The English season traditionally begins the week after the Community Shield which is scheduled for August 11 but LTV’s magazine has no Premier League football scheduled for August 18, one subscriber told the Mail.

After calling the station in an attempt to clarify what he believed was an oversight, he was told that a decision would be made by the end of the week whether the channel would have the rights to one of the most exciting leagues in the world.

“No comment,” was the reply from LTV chief George Xinaris when asked about the subject.

A source inside LTV told the Mail there was a big possibility that the channel would not be showing English football next season.

“The last big rights we managed to get were to the tennis at Wimbledon but sadly nobody knows what tomorrow will bring,” he said.

He added that it would a big loss for the company especially during a season that will see the return of Jose Mourinho and both Manchester clubs seeing new managers come in.

Losing the rights to one of the most prestigious championships would be a major body blow for LTV who lost the rights to Formula One to state broadcaster CyBC.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.