Servus TV, the commercial broadcaster owned by the Red Bull Media House division of Red Bull, will cease operations, the energy drinks giant said today (Tuesday).
Having been founded in 2009, the shock announcement has been made with Red Bull stating that its investment in the project has not resulted in positive returns. “The station has therefore become economically unsustainable for our company,” Red Bull said in a statement.
The closure of Salzburg-headquartered Servus TV will put around 260 jobs at threat. However, the date of its closure is yet to be determined. “The transmissions will run until further notice without restrictions,” the statement added.
Servus TV holds key sports rights in its portfolio. Austria’s Eishockey Liga, the top division of ice hockey in the country, last month agreed rights deals with pay-television broadcaster Sky Österreich and Servus TV.
Servus agreed a three-season extension to its partnership, covering the 2016-17 to 2018-19 campaigns, with an option to add a further two years to the deal. As the Liga’s exclusive free-to-air partner it was set to broadcast over 40 games live per season.
In January, Servus struck a deal with Dorna, MotoGP’s commercial rights-holder, to show live coverage in Austria of every race and qualifying session for the 2016 motorcycling championship, as well as the Moto2 and Moto3 classes. The deal included online and mobile rights in Austria.