Russia’s President Medvedev has signed a decree that guarantees viewers will receive eight free TV channels and three free radio stations when the country completes its transition to digital broadcasting.
The TV channels in question will be Channel One, Rossiya, Vesti 24, NTV, Kultura, Sports and Petersburg – Channel 5, along with a still-to-be launched channel aimed at children and young people.
The latter, based in Telenyana and Bibigon, will have to be set up by January 1, 2011.
All the channels will be distributed over one frequency employing MPEG-4 compression.