VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues. You know that Russia has applied to host the World Cup in 2018. Meanwhile, in some regions of the country, football fans are complaining that they can't even watch our domestic, Russian championships on state television. Why is this? What's going on?
Sergei Fursenko (president of the Russian Football Union): Mr Putin, in 2005, the rights to broadcast football were sold to Premiere League NTV+ for four years for a rather large amount. This year the amount is $27 million. This is good money that can support the clubs of the Premiere League. And we, of course, would like an even greater amount.
Vladimir Putin: And this entire amount goes towards supporting the clubs?
Sergei Fursenko: Yes, all of this money is transferred to club accounts.
Vladimir Putin: And NTV+ is fulfilling its obligations?
Alexei Miller (CEO of Gazprom): Yes, NTV+ is fully fulfilling its obligations.
Of course, this is a commercial project for NTV+, and the company primarily proceeds from issues of profitability of funding the broadcast. The current amount, even though it is considerable, in the future will certainly increase due to growth in the advertising market and the football audience. It is currently $27 million.
We are aware of the issues that concern the broadcast of football matches on public television, on Russia-wide networks. And we, of course, treat the companies that own the rights to broadcast and re-broadcast Russian championships with understanding.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Mutko (addressing Vitaly Mutko, minister of sport, tourism and youth policy), we have broadcasts on Channel One Russia, don't we?
Vitaly Mutko: Mr Putin, initially, the entire project was intended to have the 30 best matches from each round broadcast on the Channel One Russia national network and another 240 matches were to be shown on NTV+. Local broadcasts were also planned.
Those clubs that have their own TV and radio broadcasting could run their matches on local television. Naturally, all of these years, the partners met with understanding, and NTV+ allowed sub-licensing for broadcast on the channel Sport. And this satisfied all of the demands of our fans.
Vladimir Putin: Mr Dobrodeyev (addressing Oleg Dobrodeyev, director general of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company - VGTRK), VGTRK is a state company and uses direct financial subsidy. Accordingly, how are arrangements made with your partners, financial arrangements in this case?
Oleg Dobrodeyev: In 2007-2008, we broadcast around 230 matches per season. In 2009, the number of matches we broadcast was significantly lower - 120 matches for the year. We think that now, in order to satisfy our fans and resolve this issue, we could show one more match out of eight matches in a round, another match on a public television network - Rossiya 2, in this case.
Vladimir Putin: Let's do just that. So there will be no fewer than 30 matches, first.
Second, I want to point out that NTV+ is fulfilling a very important mission, but it is, after all, pay TV, and not all sports fans and football fans can afford even these small premiums. Therefore, we will do as I said. There will be a total of 30 matches per year. These will alternate between recorded and live broadcasts, and VGTRK will get additional support from the government.
