Russia Today has lost its retransmission on the Sky, Freesat and Freeview platforms as sanctions by the European Union against Russia impacted across the English Channel.
RT UK was being broadcast from the Astra satellite neighbourhood at 28.2 degrees East, which feeds Sky, Freesat and the DTT Freeview platform. SES, which operates the Astra system is based in Luxembourg and is required to follow sanctions placed on Russia by the European Union.
As of Wednesday evening, UK media regulator Ofcom said it had opened a total of 27 investigations into news programmes on RT.
RT’s SD feeds were removed at around 13.00 GMT, the HD feeds were taken down four hours later.
A spokesperson for Sky Group confirmed the move: “Following the removal of the RT satellite feeds across Europe, the channel will no longer be displayed on the Sky platform.”
Broadband TV News can confirm RT has also gone to a black screen on Astra at 19 degrees East and Eutelsat at 13 degrees East. It means RT UK, RT France, RT Español and RT Arabic are now all off the air in Europe.
RT and news agency Sputnik were officially banned on Wednesday morning as the EU moved to remove Russian disinformation following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The details were published in the EU’s Official Journal, which provides the legal backing for the decision.
