Greece pulls the plug on "extravagant" state broadcaster ERT Greece has announced the immediate closure of the state broadcaster ERT as it seeks to comply with a scheme agreed with the EU and International Monetary Fund to cut the public sector payroll by eliminating scores of overstaffed state-owned organisations. Tuesday's move took employees of ERT, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, employees by surprise but reflects growing impatience by the conservative-led government with union reluctance over the past year to negotiate a broad-based early retirement scheme and hundreds of voluntary redundancies. Several thousand contract workers at ERT have already lost their jobs. ERT's main public television channel, NET, immediately replaced its scheduled programmes with a clip of a lightbulb going out and a soundtrack of sombre classical music. A voiceover said: "Public television makes us weep, laugh and debate - don't shut us down." The broadcaster has 2,650 employees working at five television stations, 29 radio stations and several websites. It also supports two symphony orchestras. ERT's annual income, collected through a levy on electricity bills, exceeds €300m, though the government began transferring about 25 per cent of that amount for other uses after Greece's financial crisis erupted in 2010. "ERT is a unique example of extravagant spending and lack of transparency," said Simeon Kedikoglou, the government spokesman. We're talking about a company with six different accounting offices that don't communicate with each other ... It has been a target for looting - there hasn't been an inventory of its equipment for the past eight years. He said the shutdown would take place in the early hours of Wednesday. A new public radio and television station would be established and begin broadcasting "as soon as possible," Mr Kedikoglou added. All employees would receive full redundancy compensation and could reapply for jobs at the new state broadcaster, which is expected to hire fewer than 1,200 workers. A live broadcast on NET showed an unnamed ERT journalist holding up a two-page official document giving details of the shutdown, calling it a "government coup." The channel showed squads of riot police surrounding ERT's downtown television studio near parliament, blocking access to the building as technicians and journalists began arriving for the evening shift. The government issued a special "legal action" to implement the closure without seeking cabinet approval or presenting legislation to parliament in a move apparently aimed at bypassing likely opposition to the measure. Democratic Left, the junior partner in the three-part governing coalition, said in a statement it had not backed the action and opposed the closure of Greece's only public broadcaster. Evangelos Venizelos, leader of the socialist Pasok party, the other coalition member, also said he disagreed with the move. Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition party Syriza, told hundreds of employees gathered outside ERT's headquarters in the Athens suburb of Halandri: "This is completely illegal ... The government has overstepped its authority. You can't do this without parliamentary approval, it's an issue of democracy. The closure leaves Greece with three nationwide private television stations operating to international standards, dozens of regional channels and hundreds of private radio stations. None of the private television stations, which have operated for more than 20 years, has paid for a broadcasting licence, in spite of pressure from the EU and IMF on the government to reduce the influence of local interest groups on the media by auctioning licences to the highest bidder.