Last week, there was an opinion in the Kyiv Post written by Mr. Danny Menken, representative of Eurosport: https://archive.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/op_ed/detail/125846/
What was stated in this article is not 100% true.
Of course, you can say that you just gave Mr. Menken an opportunity to express his opinion. But what was truly unexpected was that you didn’t check his story and didn’t ask Volia’s opinion in order to see the full picture. As a result, your readers have only one side of the story, which is not completely true.
I would like to emphasize that this is a 100 percent commercial dispute. Eurosport is the most expensive TV channel available in our country. In our opinion, unjustly so.
Volia was successfully working with Eurosport for about seven years and during all this time there was mutual understanding between the two companies. Today we have cause for concern, because of rather tough position of Eurosport on the conditions in which they offer access to its channels for Ukrainian viewers. Negotiations with Eurosport lasted for almost a year, but we didn’t reach an agreement.
The proposed cost of this international sports channel is rather extravagant and unacceptable for the Ukrainian audience in today’s economic environment. We must defend the interests of our subscribers.
We strongly believe that Eurosport should not use you or Ukrainian sportsmen (who signed a petition mentioned in the article) as an instrument of pressure on Volia and on the court. It is not ethical.
Such disputes should be resolved only by finding mutually beneficial terms of cooperation, not by public ultimatums.
Volia would like to have an opportunity to present this situation from our point of view, and explain it to your readers.
Best regards,
Alina Sigda
Head of PR
Volila
