Prague  - The Czech Republic's public broadcaster is withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest after three years because viewers dislike the show, Czech Television confirmed Friday.

Spokesman Ladislav Sticha said low ratings and negative opinion polls showed Czechs had been unhappy with the pan-European competition since the Central European country of 10.4 million joined in 2007.

None of the Czech competitors made it to the final round in the three years the Czech Republic took part. This year, only 260,000 viewers watched the final, Sticha said.

As a result the station was no longer willing to spend 5 million koruny (279,000 dollars) on showing the competition, a sum worth the equivalent of 10 hours of original broadcasting, he said.

Some Czech music critics have criticized the station for participating in the 53-year-old song contest, which is popular in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

The critics called the event, famously won by Swedish group ABBA in 1974, a tasteless charade.(dpa)