Lifestyle To Cease At End Of January

Following the announcement that Screensport and Eurosport are to merge it has now been revealed that the Lifestyle channel will be the first casualty to emerge from the partnership.

At a press conference yesterday Rick Spinner, chief executive officer of European Television Networks announced that Lifestyle will cease transmission at the end of this month. Transponders currently used to transmit the channel are under discussion with first preference going to shareholders. It is estimated that the closure will result in at least 20 job losses. Spinner refused to comment further on the closure claiming that decisions have still to be made about an end to transmission.

The new sports channel will be based in Paris, resulting in further job losses for Screensport employees. The London based channel will ‘tie up loose ends’ in mid-February and it is expected that Eurosport will get off the ground at the end of February or beginning of March. Both Rick Spinner and Peter Brice, commercial director of European TV Networks were eager to point out that the new channel will begin transmission with a ‘clean sheet’, meaning that all outstanding debts will be absorbed by both parties.

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