Plus TV is a private national

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...

television channel. It is the sixth private TV channel established in

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. Its first official broadcast took place on July 28, 2006.

History

Its first official broadcast was in the mid-2000s as ''Astra TV'' until 2005 when it was renamed to ''Axia Channel''. Later, on July 28, 2006 it changed to ''CNC Plus TV'', with ''CNC'' meaning ''Cyprus New Channel''. It broadcast a pilot program with children's and music shows. After January 2007, it changed to its current name (Plus TV) with the acronym CNC later removed after August 2007. In July 2006, it maintained a partnership with

Alter Channel Alter Channel, better known as Alter, was a private TV channel in Greece. It was launched in 1990 and owned by Eleftheri Tileorasi S.A. and was headed by Andreas Kouris. Alter's programming mainly consisted of news, current affairs shows and ent ...

while also including more Cypriot productions and partnership with Greek

Alpha TV Alpha TV is a Greece, Greek free-to-air channel, one of the biggest stations in Greece. The station features a mix of Greek and foreign shows with an emphasis on information. The studios are located in Kifissia and Pallini. Alpha TV is owned by A ...

and

902 TV 902 TV was a television station in Greece that was owned by the Communist Party of Greece. It featured general entertainment programming and was available throughout Greece. On September 10, 2012, ceased operations due to financial difficulties ...

. In September 2007 the channel changed ownership and made ‘rapid improvements’. At the end of the 2009-2010 season Plus TV occupied the lowest audience share among the nationwide channels, with direct implications for advertising value. In 2009, it stopped cooperation with these three channels and started a new deal with Star Channel, broadcasting most of its programs until 2015 when

Omega Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...

started an exclusive cooperation with the television channel. In 2016, Plus was acquired by Filippos Vryonis, who three years before bought

, turning it into

Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or ; ) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was derived from the Phoenic ...

, while also owning two regional channels in Greece (Extra and AB) with the aim of renaming the all-Cypriot channel to ''Epsilon Cyprus''. However, the plan was aborted due to continued obstacles from the Cyprus Radio and Television Authority and a lack of data. Previously, in 2013 when the then pan-Hellenic Epsilon started broadcasting, he had signed a collaboration with the also all-Cypriot ''Capital TV'' based in

Limassol Limassol, also known as Lemesos, is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the Limassol district. Limassol is the second-largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population of 195,139 and a district population o ...

. In September 2018, there was a dispute between Plus and Omega (then known TV one) over the cooperation and broadcasting of programs of the renamed Epsilon/Open channel due to a change of ownership the year before. Due to these changes, the channel started cooperating with New Epsilon, having a shorter range in Greece, replacing Extra, which returned to AB's frequencies.

References

Greek-language television stations Television channels and stations established in 2006 Television channels in Cyprus {{Cyprus-tv-station-stub