Ukraine’s TV industry was unprepared for a new language law that came into effect in the country earlier this month.
In a crtical statement about the matter, the regulator National Council says that “Instead of investing moderate money in the creation of the usual high-quality TV product, TV channels reacted to this formally and intentionally simplified, and then appealed to the fall in ratings and loss of income”.
It adds: “Unfortunately, in the first days of the new requirements, we were faced with the fact that the TV industry was inconsistent in terms of language protection. Some players in this field immediately ignored the requirements of the law, used it to win the competition – and thus outlined discord in the industrial field. Others, after suffering for a short time, having just survived the rating losses for a few days, also resorted to breaking the law. Only superficially – so far – analysing the causes of these losses, we can name a number of reasons. One of them is the categorically low quality of sound, which sharply repelled even the part of the audience that wanted to watch in Ukrainian! Broadcasters did not prepare for the transition to broadcasting in the state language for the two years allotted by the legislator – they did so at the last minute carelessly, primitively and formally. It is unfortunate that the quality of sound and dubbing, which have been and remain a special pride of film distribution for many years, is not available to some TV channels, even with unprecedented financial support from the owner”.
