TALLINN — Thursday night MTV Eesti’s programming was switched to the English-language, pan-European MTV Europe programming by owner Ananey Communications as a result of economic crisis.

The decision by Ananey Communication, an Israeli media enterprise that purchased the MTV Networks Baltic from Viacom in 2008, was sudden. MTV Eesti press representative Ingrid Kohtla said that the move is only temporary, though and does not mean Estonian-language music television programming it will disappear from screen permanently.

“Mostly it affects our main office in Lithuania, but as we operate under them, and also the transmitting center is in Lithuania, then it initially affects us as well. Obviously it’s not possible to move over the transmitting center in one day, even if it would be the plan,” Kohtla told Baltic Reports.

Kohtla said she did not know how long the MTV Europe program will substitute for the local programming.

“Our true wish is to bring MTV Estonia back as quickly as possible, as supporting Estonian artists has been one of our missions, even though it’s just a small window in Europe,” Kohtla said. “We also had several of our own productions in plan.”

MTV Eesti is examining all possible solutions, and promised to update viewers over the next couple weeks once certain decisions by the owners have been approved.