Russian DTH platforms believe they face an existential threat from a draft law being prepared by the country’s Ministry of Communications.
According to RBK, the law will require them to offer 20 leading Russian TV channels free of charge in parts of the country where they cannot be received terrestrially.
The channels, which are currently distributed on two national multiplexes, would be made available to viewers who have satellite reception equipment and once paid a fee to a DTH operator.
Three operators – the National Satellite Company (Tricolor TV), Orion and MTS – have written to the Ministry of Communications asking it to reconsider the draft law. In it, they say that there should be a mechanism for compensating them for providing the 20 channels free of charge.
They also ask for the number of settlements and households receiving the services to be fixed, otherwise the operators’ costs would grow in the event of terrestrial transmitter failures.
In addition, they express fears that they would be obliged to broadcast regional TV channels for free. This would require an unprecedented expansion of satellite capacity that they do not currently have.
It is envisioned that the first and second DTT multiplexes in Russia will eventually reach 98.4% and 98.1% of the population respectively.
