Ukraine’s National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting has refused to renew a number cable licences on the grounds that the fee for doing is too low.
According to AKTR and Kommersant Ukraine, the move affects a dozen regional cable operators, among them Velton Telekom, Telesvit and Orbita Servis TV.
Although they offered to increase the area they cover and number of channels in their offers, they were told by the Council that they would have to apply for new licences.
An amendment to existing legislation in 2009 reduced the fee charged for to cable operators for renewing an existing licence to only UAH85 (€8.28).