You're reading: Spat brewing after Volia switches off Eurosport

Eurosport Group, Europe's leading sports television broadcasting group, announced on Dec. 30 that it would challenge a decision by a top Ukrainian cable television operator to drop its Eurosport channels.

“Eurosport regrets to inform its viewers and general public in Ukraine, that the Ukrainian cable operator Volia, recently announced on its website that it will switch off Eurosport channels from its line-up effective January 1, 2012,” Eurosport said in a statement issued on Dec. 30

“Eurosport would like to inform the Ukrainian public that it has a valid contract with Volia, which was agreed in the beginning of this year and which is valid until the end of 2013. Thanks to this contract Volia has been benefiting from better conditions, including a lower license fee per subscriber,” Eurosport added.

Volia, Ukraine’s leading cable television service provider, announced on Dec. 25 that it would drop Eurosport and Eurosport2 starting Jan. 1 2012. To compensate, Volia said that it would add another sports channel, ViasatSport in its basic package of channels, and offer Russian NTV+Basketball and NTV+Tennis on to its Sports package.

In explaining why it dropped Eurosport, Volia said: “We regret that the license owners of these programs categorically held firm in their position on a substantial increase on the cost for licenses. This would have led to a substantial increase in our packages.”

Eurosport challenged this, saying:“We do not believe that any of these benefits have been passed on to Volia’s subscribers and we totally contest Volia’s statements that ‘our contract is coming to its end’ and that ‘there has been a substantial increase on the license fees’. Eurosport is taking all possible steps including legal actions in order that Volia continues the delivery of the channels, so that their subscribers can follow as usual their favorite sports events.”