The Greek government on Tuesday ordered the closure of the country's state television and radio broadcaster ERT due to austerity cuts, bringing an end to the 75-year-old operation, dpa reported. "The government has decided to close down ERT - as of tonight," said government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou during the shock announcement, describing the broadcaster as a haven of wasteful spending, corruption and mismanagement. "It costs three to seven times as much as other TV stations and four to six times the personnel for a very small viewership, about half that of an average private station," he said. Transmissions at the Greek equivalent of Britain's BBC were to end in the early hours of Wednesday and its 2,500 employees compensated. The channel was then expected to reopen "as soon as possible" with a smaller workforce. The country's international lenders - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - are pressing the government into fast-tracking a delayed plan to dismiss 2,000 civil servants by the end of the year and 15,000 by the end of 2014. Greece has carried out a series of austerity measures, including tax hikes and wage and pension cuts since it received its first tranche of emergency aid in May 2010. ERT made its first public broadcast in 1938 and grew to three channels, seven national radio stations and 19 regional radio stations.