Greek pay-TV tax criticised

The CEO of Greece’s Forthnet has critcised the imminent imposition of a special tax on pay-TV services in the country.

Speaking at the Game Changer Sports congress, Panos Papadopoulos said that it will be extremely harmful to Greek companies active in the field as it would create extremely burdensome conditions of unfair competition in favour of foreign companies .

At the same time, he stressed that the imposition of a special tax on pay-TV will produce ripple effects on other fields such as Greek athletics and Greek cinema productions.

This will occur because TV rights revenues constitute the main, if not the only, revenue of Greek league teams, while Greek cinema manages to stand on its feet through co-productions financed by pay-TV platforms.

Commenting on other matters, Papadopoulos said that Forthnet’s basic strategy is to support Greek athletics.

It has invested over €500 million in them over the last five years, with the lion’s share going to professional football.