The Czech Republic’s Prima Group says it has failed to reach an agreement with O2 about the distribution of its TV channels.
As a result, it will no longer give O2 TV customers access to its channels Prima, CNN Prima News, Prima Cool, Prima Max, Prima Krimi, Prima Love, Prima Zoom and Prima Star) from March 1 at the latest.
Commenting on the development, Prima Group’s CEO Marek Singer said: “Unfortunately, despite all our efforts, we were unable to agree on new terms of cooperation with O2 Czech Republic. Given that O2 Czech Republic continues to offer its clients Prima TV channels without having a valid contract with us, we have decided to end the distribution of our channels to this company no later than March.
“O2 TV users can watch their favourite programmes, such as Slunecna, Zoo, 1. MISE or Prostovano!, through other operators, paid services or tune in to our programs via DVB-T2”.
Meanwhile, O2 says it will not accede to Prima Group’s demands, which it says amount to a completely unacceptable 2,500% increase in fees.
According to Anna Lenerová, O2 TV’s content manager, “From the beginning, we strive for maximum cooperation, we do not want to deprive our viewers of the functions they are used to and use them extensively. The Prima Group came up with unbearable conditions – not only with an increase in channel distribution fees, but also an exorbitant “ransom” so that people could continue to enjoy the viewing and rewinding of programmes. In the end, this would mean an increase in O2 TV’s monthly tariffs by tens of percent. This is unacceptable for us at a time when one price after another is falling on all citizens of the Czech Republic. A similar scenario awaits competitors’ customers in the coming months. Any of the compromise options we brought to the meeting were swept off the table”.
