Eurosport has blamed the economic downturn in Spain for the pan-European sports broadcaster being removed from the country’s pay-television operator Canal Plus.
According to the Rapid TV News website, Eurosport’s chief executive for Southern Europe, Luis Fuentes, said that wider economic problems in the country had led to cost-cutting measures at media company Prisa, which owns Canal Plus Spain.
“Canal Plus Spain’s owner Prisa has been obliged to remove Eurosport and Eurosport HDTV from its offering due to a policy of cost-cutting it has been following lately due to the company’s financial crisis,” a Eurosport Spain spokesman added.
Eurosport was also removed from Spanish cable-television operator Ono in August, but Fuentes said that he retains hope of Eurosport returning to Ono and Canal Plus in the future.
Eurosport is still carried by Spanish pay-television operators Movistar Imagenio, Euskaltel, Telecable, and R.