Cytavision appears to be attempting to gain a monopoly on the television rights of the island’s top football clubs but faces stiff resistance from most club officials, and in particular APOEL, who have set high prices for their exclusive television rights. Cytavision have also not been helped by a recent report by Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides’ which outlined the need to cut down spending after the semi-government organisation suffered losses through its television network service. “Cytavision needed to reassess its contractual agreements with the football clubs” the report said, adding that “more transparency and value for money” was needed to bring their books into order. But that has failed to deter top officials at Cytavision who are reportedly keen to lure APOEL away from Lumiere and, according to Phileleftheros on Tuesday, tabled a lucrative offer to the Cypriot champions in which they would pay a lump sum €5.4 million to acquire the rights for between 2016 and 2019 or pay €1.6m per year for the same period. Other more modest clubs, including Ermis Aradippou, Doxa Katokopia and AEK Larnaca, have also been approached and been offered higher contracts to what they are currently on. Bargaining is currently underway between the clubs and the various television service providers for the TV rights for the seasons between 2016 and 2019. Cytavision is also offering additional payment in return for shirt sponsorships with certain football clubs. The other big player in the live football television coverage spectrum, Lumiere, are currently in a dire financial straits andin danger of losing their current contracts – that run until 2016 – because of unpaid dues to various clubs. One of these clubs, APOEL filed a civil suit against Lumiere in April seeking the unpaid sum of €370,000 and calling on the court to order the liquidation of company assets in order to obtain the money if the subscriber television service provider cannot meet its contractual obligations. Ermis, who made history last season by securing their place in the Cyprus Coca-Cola Cup final as well as qualifying for Europe for the first time in their history, have also launched a similar suit against Lumiere. Both cases will be heard in October at the Nicosia District Court. Cytavision have meanwhile, according to the same sources at Phileleftheros, also offered APOEL a lucrative deal to run up to 2016 in the event that the Nicosia club manage to break out of their current deal with Lumiere. Meanwhile, the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) and its chairman Costakis Koutsokoumnis are pushing for a CFA platform to handle the television rights of football clubs and then evenly disburse the money amongst them. Koutsokoumnis’ suggestion has received a lukewarm reaction particularly from APOEL who earlier this year demanded the resignation of the CFA chief following the controversial end to the 2013-2014 league season in which a series of appeals was needed to determine which club would be Cypriot champions. Cyprus Weekly
TV rights fight in Cyprus
