Greek state TV blacks out on Olympic debut
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-08-12 12:56

Greece's state broadcaster went off air during its Olympic debut on Wednesday, losing the signal for 25 minutes during the evening's soccer qualifiers.

Viewers all over Greece watching the ET-1 channel were left with a blank screen midway through the national team's opening evening match against Korea after a fault.

The state broadcaster ERT blamed the loss of signal on a short circuit at television centre. "This caused the breakdown of the whole system at our control centre," ERT said in a statement.

Government spokesman Theodoris Roussopoulos said that the incident would be investigated.

"We will examine who is responsible for this technical fault at ET-1 and there will be disciplinary measures," Roussopoulos said in a statement.

The match finished 2-2.