Some Russian TV stations are finding ways to get round the advertising ban on thematic channels that comes into effect at the beginning of 2015.
Kommersant reports that the latest of these is LifeNews, which is part of News Media, owned by Aram Gabrelyanov, has secured terrestrial frequencies in Irkutsk, Kursk, the Nizhny Novgorod region and Tatarstan, along with seven cities with a population of less than 100,000.
This, confirmed Ashot Gabrelyanov, the CEO of LifeNews, will allow it to continue selling advertising after January 1 next year.
The same ‘loophole’ effectively exists for all channels that have a terrestrial frequency in at least one region of Russia, irrespective of how they are funded.
They include RBC TV and the music-based Ru.TV.