Russia’s State Duma has approved a bill banning advertising on cable and satellite channels from the beginning of next year.
The bill, which had its first, second and third readings in only a week but still requires presidential approval, has already caused a storm of protests from various sectors of the industry, including a number of broadcasters and the cable association AKTR.
Quoting a letter send by the head of several Russian channels, including Natalya Sindeyeva of Dohzd and Sergei Nazarov of Amedia TV, Moscow Times reports that the new bill would put the survival of 150 of the around 270 cable and satellite channels in the country at risk.
The bill, which bans commercials on all channels available exclusively on a paid basis, as well as those that can only be viewed on a decoding device, is, according to its author Igor Zotov, designed to create a level playing field between free and subscription-based channels.
However, the latter accounted for just 2.6% of Russia’s TV ad market in 2013.
Comnews quotes a representative of Viasat as saying that the wording of the bill is not so clear and therefore it is too early to talk about its consequences. They added that it still requires presidential approval.
CTC Media meanwhile told Comnews that the bill would not affect its business, and Nikolai Orlov, the head of First HDTV, has said his company would appeal to the Federation Council to reject the bill, and of that failed then directly to President Putin.
