The United Group company said that they were unpleasantly surprised by the actions of the e&Etisalat PPF Telecom Group, which owns SBB and Yettel in Serbia, which "publicly presented incorrect information" that United Group was the one that sold Total TV to Telekom, "which is a notorious untruth."
PPF, they say, contrary to their public announcements, bought SBB as a whole, which included the cable system and Total TV.
The new owner of SBB, they said, then sold Total TV to Telekom Srbije, which on the same day after taking over Total TV, removed the N1 and Nova S channels from users.
"We do not understand the reasons why the e&Etisalat PPF Telecom Group decided, after reaching an agreement to buy SBB, to treat the N1 and Nova S channels incorrectly and unprofessionally, almost in the same way as the regime in Serbia, for which these credible and watched television channels are undesirable. Namely, despite the signed exclusive agreement that allows N1 and Nova S to be available on the Yettel cable network, they have not yet included these channels, although 45 new channels have been included in their other network (SBB) at the same time. The only explanation for such a procedure is in the unconvincing claim about the modernization of the platform. We clearly and directly offered Yettel all technical support so that users could immediately watch N1 and Nova, but they turned a deaf ear to our offer. Now, instead of a larger number of Serbian citizens gaining access to the channels, the sale of Total TV is actually doing the opposite – N1 and Nova are being denied to tens of thousands of households in Serbia."
They asked whether the company e&Etisalat PPF Telecom Group is under political pressure from the authorities in Serbia and whether they have "some secret agreement" to do everything possible to reduce the ratings of N1 and Nova S.
"At a time when Serbia is going through a serious political and social crisis, e&Etisalat PPF Telecom Group is choosing to act as an accomplice in the suppression of media freedom, ignoring its obligations to users and the public," United Group said.
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