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But marketing manager defends dropping

LATEST In the latest developments over the dropping of Eurosport from NTL ROI, it has emerged that the two companies are at loggerheads over the carrige fee NTL should pay Eurosport for the carrige of the channel. In an interview with Broadcast, Eurosport Ireland area manager Greg d'Assche said: 'Having been part of NTL's pack for 10 years we deeply regret a mutual agreement could not be reached especially considering the timing.' Broadcast's sources also believe the move is part of a ploy to force NTL customers to move to Go Digital, which is only available as of yet in patches of the NTL network.

An appearence by Mark Mohan - Marketing Director of NTL Ireland - on the Finucane programme, RTE Radio 1, on Tuesday morning stirred up a hotbed of controvosy regarding the dropping of free-to-air sports channel Eurosport from the NTL Ireland Consumer basic service on analogue and digital cable and MMDS. Mohan defended the dropping of Eurosport, saying that it was a niche channel and that coverage of major sporting events such as the Winter Olympics could be found on mainstream channels, in this case the BBC - while at the same time admitting that the BBC's coverage of this event would not be as comprehensive as Eurosport's. The news media, especially the Irish Times, seem to be of the view that it was a poor performence for NTL, who would not state why they had dropped Eurosport, despite being asked at least eight times by the Times reckoning. Mohan's defence was to quote "commercial reasons" followed by "Eurosport is now regarded as a niche channel". Hmm, as opposed to a 24-hour business channel aimed clearly at stockbrokers and top executives, who make up shall we say a very small niche in NTL's subscriber base? (BTW, the channel was previously available 24 hours as an additional channel on NTL Ireland Business' cable TV service).

But an even bigger part of the debacle emerged over the course of the interview, and has also been reported on our Cable and MMDS forum. NTL has, without warning, dropped Eurosport from its Go Digital package. The original tone of the press release issued prior to the change indicated that Go Digital viewers would continue to enjoy Eurosport. After being altered to this, NTL have recently made slight modifications to the copy of the press release on their website. Nevertheless, there is still nothing to say that NTL would drop Eurosport from the Go Digital package. The mystery continued, when Mohan stated on-air that NTL was in negotiations to carry Eurosport...on its Go Digital package!!! Why would NTL drop a channel then immediately enter into negotiations to carry that channel? Especially one that is connected to NTL - they own a stake in the British Eurosport varient carried on Sky Digital, and provide technical facilities to allow that channel be aired. It has now emerged that it is the carrige fee issue that is the real reason NTL have dropped Eurosport.

ICDG will continue to update you on this story. We also recommend tuning in to Finucane (Weekdays, 9:05am on RTE RADIO 1) for further news. A debate on this continues in our Cable and MMDS forum.

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