Small and medium sized Russian cable operators face a direct threat from the so-called ‘Spring Law’.
The latter, which effectively consists of two pieces of federal legislation adopted in July 2016, was designed by its authors to counter terrorism and ensure public safety.
Among its requirements is for providers of internet services to store information about data reception and transmission, in the case of operators for three years.
According to Kommersant, this could prove costly to not only for mobile operators and internet companies but also small and medium sized operators.
Such operators account around a third of the market and face the prospect of footing a similar proportion of the bill for implementing the ‘Spring Law’, the total for which has been estimated at R1 trillion (€16.14 billion).
Failure to find the money could put their futures in doubt, and at the same time threaten the distribution of channels carried by the first and second multiplexes, for which some 30% of homes rely on small and medium sized operators for their reception.
The law will not have an impact on providers of satellite TV services unless they also include internet access in their offers.