Ant1 seeks takeover over CyBC2

ANTENNA is seeking to take over state broadcaster CyBC’s second television channel, Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou confirmed yesterday.

Christodoulou told reporters he had received a letter from Antenna president Loucis Papaphilipou announcing his desire to take over CyBC2.

The minister said Antenna had assured him it would retain CyBC2’s name and character, as well as all its international contracts, such as its broadcasting agreement with Euronews.

The letter, which was accompanied by a feasibility study, suggested that in return for handing over the channel, the state would receive a certain income, guaranteed to be higher than what is earned at present.

Christodoulou said the proposal was currently being “examined and studied” by ministry officials.

This is the first time a private company has proposed to take over a state television channel in Cyprus.

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.