The television community discusses the appearance of a new channel.
News that VGTRK was closing its Sport Channel to be replaced with a channel tentatively called Rossia-2 has caused a stir in the television community. Most market analysts agree that it leaves many questions unanswered. For example, it is unclear what the legal status of the new channel will be and on what grounds it would be included in the list of generally accessible national TV and radio channels. President Medvedev's press secretary Natalya Timakova has refused to comment on the appearance of the new VGTRK channel and Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Kommersant that "Putin has an understanding of the work of the media holding."
The elimination of the Sport channel and, even more, the start of a new commercial general channel tentatively called Rossia-2 was the biggest talking point in the TV community yesterday (Kommersant carried a detailed report on the creation of the new channel yesterday). With VGTRK's plans regarding the content and cost of the channel unclear, discussion focused on the legal transformation of the Sport channel's license and the grounds for it being replaced within the first free package with an entirely new channel called Rossia-2.
The decree President Medvedev signed in June established a list of free national TV channels that would be accessible for everyone when the country switches to digital broadcasting in 2015. The first package included: Channel 1, Rossia, NTV, Kultura, Vesti, St Petersburg Channel 5, Sport and a Children's Channel that would merge Bibigon and Telenyanya.
Many refuse to make public comments on the transformation of the Sport Channel because VGTRK is one of the biggest and most influential players in the market and everybody wants to be on its right side.
An employee at the Federal Tender Commission, or FTC (which is directly engaged in TV and radio broadcast licensing), said on condition of anonymity: "For many years we have given frequencies to Sport and like Kultura channels as a matter of priority because they are socially important channels, sometimes at the expense of commercial broadcasters who had an equal claim to these frequencies. Even when a moratorium on the award of frequencies in the regions was announced, only VGTRK (as represented by Sport and Kultura) continued to enjoy them as strategic channels. And every region gave them preferential treatment because Sport had been declared a top national priority. Now this entire network will go to a new commercial broadcaster, even if still under the VGTRK brand." At the same time our source said that he saw no problems with transforming the license for the new channel, Rossia 2 "because they only have to register a new media outlet and make an amendment to the current sport license, and the FTC has little say in that. It is obvious that the VGTRK decision to form a new channel has the Kremlin's approval."
So far the legal grounds for the new commercial channel Rossia-2 aimed at young people above 25 replacing the Sport channel in the first free package are unclear. Sport was included as a channel performing an important service to the population, a point frequently stressed not only by VGTRK executives but by the country's leaders, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.
The president's press secretary, Natalya Timakova, yesterday refused to comment on the demise of Sport channel. Vladimir Putin's press spokesman Dmitry Peskov was more forthcoming in explaining the prime minister's position: "Sport will not disappear from the airwaves. Putin has sympathy for the work of the media holding. Television does not stand still, the company is in need of modernisation and reorganisation," Peskov stressed. "The important thing is that the philosophy of Sport remains."
First Deputy Director General of VGTRK and Director General of Rossia Channel, Anton Zlatopolsky, explained to Kommersant yesterday that he saw no contradictions in the fact that Rossia-2 would replace Sport in the free package as the new channel's target audience is young people. "The social function, i.e. preserving the amount of live sport broadcasts, will be performed by the new channel. In that sense nothing will change in the first package," Zlatopolsky stressed. "By the way, the only population group that has not been represented to date is the youth. Now the new channel will fill that gap." STS Director-General Vyacheslav Murugov agrees with Zlatopolsky up to a point, saying that "everything being done within VGTRK has a social component." But Murugov said that if the government had announced a tender for a place in the first package for a youth channel, STS is well qualified to fill that niche: "In terms of concept and our long-standing popularity with the youth audience we deserve to be there." A more principled stand was taken by Rafael Akopov, president of Prof Media which includes youth and specialized channels MTV, 2 x 2, and TV3: "The composition of the first package is a monument to cronyism," he told Kommersant. "The channels it includes have private shareholders (Channel 1, NTV and Channel 5 are joint stock companies - Kommersant), sell billions of dollars worth of advertising a year (the same channels, including Rossia - Kommersant), while they continue to get government subsidies and preferences, in particular being included in the first package." According to Akopov, "all the broadcasters must be offered equal terms."
Arina Borodina
