Roskomnadzor has published a clarification of the amendments to a controversial new law that will prohibit advertising on cable and satellite channels in Russia for the beginning of 2015.
It says that the law says that the ban applies to channels that can only be accessed on a fee basic and/or with the use of technical decoding devices.
However, it does not apply to all-Russian public TV channels, as well as those distributed in Russia using limited DTT frequencies.
Roskomnadzor adds that as of July 7 there were a total of 3,462 TV channels licensed to broadcast on various media in Russia.
There were 1,421 licences issued for distribution on a “reimbursable” basis (1,417 cable and four satellite broadcasting) and 1,405 for terrestrial broadcasting.
Licences were allocated to around 2,000 “conditionally paid: channels (1,320 cable, 227 satellite and 430 universal licence) and about 1,300 “free” channels (1,262 “essential” and 43 with universal licences).
The law essentially applies to some 1,400 channels that can be categorized as “unique pay-TV” and are not distributed terrestrially.
Of these, around 300 are federal. Local reports say that the channels directly affected will include Discovery and TV 1000, which do not have terrestrial licences and so are unable to bypass the ban.
Discovery, along with RBC TV, had the highest revenues from advertising in 2013 among niche broadcasters, in each case amounting to over R600 million (€12.83 million). The new law still has to be signed off by President Putin.
