Russia media law will hit foreign broadcasters
January 22, 2015
By Chris Forrester
Following Turner Broadcasting and Sweden’s MTG exiting Russia because of its tough new rules on foreign ownership, a report from IHS Technology says a number of other non-Russian broadcasters will find the going tough because of the 20 per cent cap now in place.
IHS says that besides Raduga (a joint venture with MTG and Russia-based Continental Media) and Turner International’s portfolio of channels (including CNN) the other notable players with stakes in Russia include Viacom, Sony Entertainment, Scandinavia’s TV1000, TV100 and Viasat History. Discovery, along with famous brands such as Eurosport, are also likely to be affected.
Moreover, IHS says that the foreign players will be reduced by probable asset disposals within Russia. “At the very least there will be a very large number of legal and corporate finance costs associated with the restructuring of existing assets which will be necessary to comply with the new law.”