PRIMETEL and LTV engaged in a war of words and accusations yesterday after their long standing relationship reached its absolute lowest-ever point, culminating in the termination of their affiliation.
PrimeTel kicked things off yesterday morning by releasing a bombshell announcement which stated that the internet and television provider would terminate its cooperation with LTV as of October 31. PrimeTel had supplied its subscribers via Lumiere TV the channels LTV, LTV2, LTV3, ALFA, LTVSports1 and LTVSports2.
PrimeTel CEO Ermes Stefanou said that the reasons behind this move was that LTV kept creating new channels which in turn brought additional payments for Prime?el subscribers who wanted to watch the Cypriot football games on the new channels.
“LTV started out by creating the channels LTV and ALFA which we paid for. Then they proceeded to create four more channels and again we were asked to pay,” he said.
“Recently they went ahead with two additional channels which they want us to pay for as well. PrimeTel considers this practice to be unfair and one which brings additional charges to Cypriot football fans. Our company chooses not to participate in this game that LTV is playing” Stefanou added.
Following the announcement by PrimeTel, LTV sent an immediate rebuttal and via a press release attempted “to correct the false impression created by PrimeTel”
LTV Spokesman Stefanos Gournis said: “LTV is the one who was forced to end its cooperation with PrimeTel via a letter we sent on September 28, 2010 because of repeated non-payments.” According to Gournis the letter was a final warning to PrimeTel after the internet and television provider had gone months without meeting their financial obligations.
“The reasons behind the termination of the cooperation between LTV and PrimeTel specified in the notice released by PrimeTel are completely inaccurate” Gournis said.
Gournis was also keen to point out that LTV would continue to honour their relationship with Cytavision , Nova Cyprus and CableNet.
Stefanou now says he is in contact with both CyTA and LTV in order to achieve integrated coverage of Cypriot football matches that will allow all fans to watch games regardless of the satellite platform they subscribe to.
PrimeTel themselves have recently acquired for their subscribers at no extra charge the live broadcast of the home games of five Cypriot teams, Apollon Limassol, APOP Kinyras, AEP, Aris Limassol, APEP. PrimeTel also hold the rights to the best Tuesday match in the UEFA Champions League.
