Romania may shortly see a major change to the must-carry rules applied to its cable operators.
According to Mediafax, proposed changes to Article 82 of the Broadcast Act, should they be implemented, would lift the requirement on cable operators to carry commercial stations.
At present all cable operators must carry the public broadcaster’s TVR1, TVR2, TVR3, TVR Cultural, TVR Info and regional TVR services from Cluj, Craiova, Iasi, Targu Mures and Timisoara, as well as TV5, set by international agreements.
They also have to currently carry 25 commercial stations, headed by the leading services Pro TV, Antena 1, Realitatea TV, Kanal D and Prima TV. The latter are determined according to an annual audience index produced by the Romanian Association for Audience Measurement.
The proposed changes come only three months after the government said it did not wish to hit commercial broadcasters economically by removing them from must-carry.
However, it is likely to be welcomed by the cable industry.
