"Recent statements made by the A1 cable television provider saying that United Media had demanded unacceptable conditions to continue carrying its channels are absolutely incorrect and untrue. A1 had been offered to continue distributing our channels under the same conditions and at the same price unchanged from before," United Media said on Monday in a press release.

The following is the full press release.

“We are even prepared to publicize our offer the way it was delivered to A1 so that the general public can see that A1’s other claim – how they would have been forced to increase subscription prices if they had continued distributing Sport Klub (SK) and N1 channels – are also untrue.

Our message for sports fans – who were informed earlier by an A1 press release that they would continue to have access to the most popular sports content via the rival Arena channel – is that Sport Klub still holds the rights to air soccer matches of the English Premier League and FA Cup, as well as the German Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2. Sport Klub will also continue to exclusively broadcast Formula 1 and Moto GP races, and the channel continues to hold rights for some of the most prestigious basketball tournaments such as the EuroLeague and EuroCup.

Only on Sport Klub will Croatian viewers be able to watch both men’s and women’s European and World Basketball Championships, as well as qualifiers for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Then there are ATP tennis tournaments, the Wimbledon tournament, ice hockey and NFL competitions, and the Italian Pallacanestro national basketball league.

And, lest we forget, there are also the UFC mixed martial arts bouts which are aired on the Fight channel.

None of these prestigious sports competitions will be accessible to viewers now, because the television channel owned by Serbia’s Telekom, Arena Sport, doesn’t have them in its offer. Although they have an unlimited budget at their disposal and the money of all citizens of Serbia, that channel is still unable to boast about hosting the most attractive sports content.

A1’s decision to discontinue distributing United Media channels doesn’t just mean that viewers have lost the ability to watch live sports, they have also lost access to news programming delivered via N1 television – an unbiased and often cited media outlet in Croatia.

To our offer for A1 to continue distributing just N1 independently, the company did not reply but simply thanked and said they do not wish to continue our cooperation.

(Operating in Croatia as part of United Group are the telecom operator Telemach Hrvatska, as well as television channels and websites Sport Klub and N1, Nova TV, Doma TV, and Dnevnik.hr.)