Amendments to the controversial legislation that prohibited advertising on pay-TV channels in Russia, with a few exceptions, from the start of this year have drawn a mixed response from the industry.
According to Comnews and AKTR, most stakeholders have doubts about the amendments, which allow advertising on pay-TV channels with 75% Russian content, arguing that there is insufficient Russian programming available and subscribers want to receive more than 25% foreign content.
A number of views on the subject were aired at the CSTB conference and exhibition, taking place this week in Moscow.
While the amendments were welcomed by key executives from Ministry of Communications and State Duma (parliament), they were criticised by other parties ranging from Channel One, the country’s leading broadcaster, to representatives of international content companies.
For instance, the DTH platform NTV-Plus said that as advertising had accounted for only 4% of its income its absence had not been noticed.
Furthermore, the channel Dohzd (‘Rain’) said that it had managed to live on revenues from subscriptions over the last three months, having introduced an a la carte business model to fund its service.
