The Ukrainian Independent TV Corporation (Inter TV channel) blames the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTCU) for disruption of signing of a contract on broadcasting 2008 Olympics.

Ukrainian News learned this from the press service of Inter.

The talks on acquisition by Inter of a sublicense for broadcasting the Olympics started late in April and the signing of the contract was scheduled for July 3.

However, the contract was not signed, as the NTCU was changing the terms and breaking dates.

In particular, two weeks ahead of the date for the signing of the contract, the NTCU refused to provide the Inter group with access codes to a satellite signal from Beijing and the sublicensee had to purchase additional technical equipment to receive the Olympic signal worth UAH 275,000 as a result.

On July 3, the NTCU moved forward another demand on sublicensing: one-hour delay in the broadcast of the closure of the Olympics on Inter instead of a 15-minute delay, according to previous agreements.

The NTCU cited the rules of the European broadcasting union in moving forward the demand.

"We agreed at the meeting that the NTCU will provide at 14:00 on July 4 official letters of the European broadcasting union concerning a ban to broadcast the closure of the Olympics of 2008 with a delay of 15 minutes and a ban to give the access codes for the satellite signal to a sublicensee," the press service quoted Serhii Sozanovskyi, the board chairman of Inter, as saying.

The NTCU never gave an answer.

"As a result of the aforesaid facts, the National Television Company of Ukraine has disrupted the signing of a contract with the Inter Group. Consequently, the NTCU has not received UAH 2,875,000 for the transmission right, UAH 1,350,000 for coverage of technical spending, and UAH 4,500,000 of sponsor money," the press service quoted Sozanovskyi as saying.

According to an initial draft contract between the NTCU and the Inter Group, Inter received opportunities to broadcast opening and closure ceremonies of the Olympics in indirect transmission with a 15-minute delay; to create the Olympic Studio for coverage of most important events of past days; broadcast at night one event of a previous day.

Megasport TV channel could broadcast 10 hours of sport events from the Olympics daily; create and broadcast the Olympic summary each morning and each evening.

Inter Group was also purchasing a right for news coverage for Inter channel, NTN, K1, and Megasport.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, U.A. Inter Media Group indirectly owns 61% of the shares of the Ukrainian Independent TV Corporation, 90% of Kino TV (Enter Film), 90% of Music TV (Enter Music), K1, K2 and Megasport TV channels and other media assets.