The Estonian operator Elisa has decided to terminate its current contract with Nord Print, which distributes Russian TV channels.
According to Elisa, Nord Print provides its basic package with the channels PBK, Ren TV, NTV Mir, Dom Kino and Kinokomedia HD. It adds that it has also made enquiries in order to obtain more detailed about the Latvian court decision reported in the media regarding the violation of sanctions imposed by the EU by companies representing Russian TV channels.
Commenting on the latter, Toomas Ili, Elisa’s content procurement manager, said: “We are definitely waiting for the official position of the competent state authorities on the Latvian court ruling, which would give all Estonian operators a formal code of conduct regarding the termination of the contract, blocking the transmission of channels or withholding payments.
An existing contract shall be terminated with two months’ notice in accordance with the contract’s obligation to give notice.
Illi added: “If the official position of the state is added to this, all operators may be obliged to terminate their contracts earlier”.
Thinking of the Russian-speaking customer base, Elisa plans to increase the procurement volumes of Russian-language content in the streaming channels in the near future.
“A new Russian-Estonian Elisa original series project is also being developed,” Ili added.
