The Ukrainian regulator National Council has postponed a decision on the exclusion of the Viacom channels Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon HD and Nickelodeon Junior from the country until December 19.
<em>Telekritika reports that Sergey Kostinsky, a member of the Council, conducted a study on the foreign licences held by the channels and concluded that they are Russian TV channels.
It adds that a Ukrainian company named Vianet, the copyright holder of Niki Kids and Niki Junior, had a dispute with Viacom in 2017 about the similarity of their names to Viacom’s services.
It then provided the National Council with information about outdated details provided on the channels’ licences by Viacom in 2008 and 2012.
Kostinsky argues that as the European licences held by Nickelodeon, Nickelodeon HD and Nickelodeon Junior do not specify a Russian-language audio track, the Russian versions shown in Ukraine are effectively Russian channels.
