Russian Federation

[RU] Must-carry provisions for regional TV

IRIS 2016-8:1/30

Andrei Richter

Comenius University (Bratislava)

The State Duma (parliament) of the Russian Federation adopted on 22 June 2016 amendments to the statutes “On the Mass Media” (see IRIS 2011-7/42) and “On Communications” that provide for guidance in selecting regional TV channels for must-carry purposes. The President signed the amendments into law on 3 July 2016.

The amendments specify that the audience of each region (or province) of the Russian Federation will have one TV channel as part of the must-carry free set of channels provided with the digital switchover. Such a channel shall be selected in accordance with a special procedure to be established by the Government of Russia from among those that already broadcast to at least 50 per cent of the population of the region. It shall comply with the national product restrictions, similar to those introduced in 2015 (see IRIS 2015-3:1/27), though stricter. It is now a necessity that at least 75 per cent of programmes broadcast are created by Russian individuals or companies duly registered in Russia or under intergovernmental treaties of the Russian Federation. Such programmes will need a certificate from Roskomnadzor, the governmental watchdog (see IRIS 2012-8/36). Tranlsated, dubbed and subtitled foreign programmes will not constitute a national product. Such a channel shall take spot N 21 of the second DTV multiplex after the 10 selected by Decree of the President for MX1 (see IRIS 2013-6:1/31) and 10 selected by the Government (see IRIS 2011-6:1/26; IRIS 2015-9:1/23) for MX2. The amendments take force on 18 July 2016.


References

  • "О внесении изменений в статью 321 Закона Российской Федерации "О средствах массовой информации" и статью 46 Федерального закона "О связи" of 3 July 2016, N 280-FZ. Published in the official daily Rossiyskaya gazeta on 8 July 2016 — N 149
  • https://rg.ru/2016/07/08zakon-dok.html

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This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.