Breeze pulls the plug on Pompey broadcasts (From Daily Echo)

Breeze pulls the plug on Pompey broadcasts

8:23am Friday 30th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

PLANS to broadcast live Pompey football games on the new Breeze radio station have been ditched after the contract was ruled “not commercially viable”.

Portsmouth’s games used to be broadcast on The Quay station, which was snapped up as the latest in a string of regional radio acquisitions by Celador earlier this month.

Negotiations with debt-hit Pompey have been ongoing ever since, until Celador last night revealed it had been “unable to reach an agreement” for the local broadcast rights.

Chairman, Paul Smith, said: “It is deeply regrettable that we have been unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion to our negotiations to allow the continued and uninterrupted broadcasting of the football commentaries and associated programming for the benefit of the fans.

“Unfortunately the investment to acquire the rights and the associated technical and staffing costs of providing the live coverage plus weekday programming far outweighs any income likely to be generated from the initiative.

“Whilst we would have been prepared to break even or even to make a small loss on this side of the business in order to meet the fans’ expectations, the deal offered to us is just not commercially viable,” he continued.

The Quay is to be re-launched as part of Celador’s new station The Breeze on Saturday, January 31.