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Home / Business

Sommet Sports channel shuts down

Herald online
11 Dec, 2014 11:05 PMQuick Read

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Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger celebrates scoring during a German Bundesliga clash against FSV Mainz 05. Photo / AP

Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger celebrates scoring during a German Bundesliga clash against FSV Mainz 05. Photo / AP

New Zealand's only free sports channel has folded after 18 months on air and stopped broadcasting at midday.

Sommet Sports says it had the vision of 'Free Sports for Kiwis' but said funding it thought would be available never materialised.

A press statement from the company said it was subsequently forced to deliver a nationwide "broadcast channel on one third of the finance".

"I am totally gutted at not being able to sustain something that we have long held a fervent desire to deliver to New Zealanders. Sommet was born from a dream to deliver free sports to all kiwis. Sadly this dream is not to be." Sommet Sports director Andrew Reeves said in a statement.

"Being the 'new kids on the block", we also struggled to gain a strong foothold with most advertising agencies. This coupled with an acute funding shortage has left us with the sad reality of having to make the difficult call," he said.

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In March this year Sommet Sports began a new satellite service on Freeview and launched a channel on Sky Television.

Sommet Sports had rights to the German football league, Chelsea TV, UEFA Europa League and MotoGP.

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