The United Group said on Friday it cut off negotiations with Telekom Srbija, N1 reported.

The Group requested that Telekom explain to the people why it paid dozens of millions of Euros “for the channels which were to the taste of the authorities.

“Following scandalous accusations by Telekom Srbija management about the United Media, we abort the negotiations with Telekom. Telekom accuses us of ‘racketeering,’ and described us as ‘cable providers’ cartel.’ Based on that no fair deal is possible,” the Group said in a statement.      

It added that Telekom, as the state company, “is obliged to publish all contracts for the citizens to see that they pay dozens of millions of Euros to the channels which are to the taste of the authorities, which they air or have a contractual obligation with Kopernikus and Pink, as well as to TVs which are being formed or are owned by Zelko Joksimovic and Manja Grcic, and to Kurir TV, owned by Igor Zezelj.”  

“That's Serbia's taxpayers’ money, and publishing of those contracts would show that the United Media's prices, besides the much better quality of the programme, are substantially lower and that they could in no way be declared ‘racketeering’,” the statement said.

“Since they developed a practice of presenting our contracts, it is in the public interest to show how much they pay to other cable channels. Let the people see if we're ‘racketeering Telekom or if it is abusing the money of all people in Serbia,” the statement added.    

The Telekom managers offered the United Media earlier on Friday to distribute N1 TV for free during the negotiations, as Prime Minister had already suggested that “N1 is distributed till the elections.”   

“It's clear that Telekom still doesn't want to accept the offer to distribute N1 TV programme in the next three years. We emphasise that N1 offer is the current public offer available to all the operators which want to accept it at any time,” the statement added.