Russian Federation

RF Government sets the Commission on the ownership of audiovisual services

IRIS 2020-2:1/15

Ekaterina Semenova

Confederation of Rightholders societies of Europe and Asia

A Commission has been created in accordance with the Law on the regulation of online cinema services, adopted in 2017.

The Russian Government has approved the composition of the Commission for the coordination of the ownership, management or control in relation to the owner of audiovisual services. The Vice Prime Minister Konstantin Chuichenko was appointed as Chairman of the Commission; the order was published on the Internet portal for legal information.

The task of the Commission, as stated in the document, is to make decisions on the approval of the ownership, management or direct or indirect control over more than 20% of the authorised capital of the ownership of the audiovisual service by a foreign state, international organisation or foreign company that collectively or individually own the information resource.

The Commission will have the right to request materials and information from state agencies and organisations on the issues within its competence; to involve officials and the representatives of organisations in its work, in accordance with the established procedure, in order to study issues submitted for its consideration; and to create working groups.

It may be recalled that the Law on the regulation of online cinema services, which came into force in July 2017, has not yet been implemented. The reason for this is the lack of a legal framework: it should have been developed by the Ministry of Communications.

The law provides that an online cinema service with a foreign ownership share of more than 20% can operate on the territory of the Russian Federation provided that more than half of its audience live in Russia. If the audience is less than 50%, then the presence of an online cinema service on the Russian market is subject to the approval of the governmental Commission.

Besides that, the law provides that all online cinema services with a daily attendance of more than one hundred thousand users and operating in Russia must be included in a special register of audiovisual services.

The Federal Service for the Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) is in charge of maintaining the register. Services included in the register must change the ownership structure: the share of foreign participation in the authorised capital must not exceed 20%.

Roskomnadzor stated that they do not keep a register of online cinemas, despite the fact that the necessary technical infrastructure is in place.