Ukraine gets tough on TV channels
March 31, 2017
By Chris Forrester
The Ukraine’s National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting has again refused to re-issue transmission licences to companies broadcasting within the digital terrestrial MX-5 network and affecting 5 channels: Adriana TV, Lider TV, Partner TV, TV Vybor and Novyy Format TV.
BBC Monitoring, quoting the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, said an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said that the regulator had made the decision at a meeting on 30 March 2017.
The National Council said earlier that its position was dictated by the fact that if the companies which were granted licences to broadcast within the digital multichannel network MX-5 changed their programme concepts, they would actually make these concepts similar to the one of the satellite TV channel 112 Ukrayina and cancel the programmes with which they won the tender (local news, content for children, etc.).
Thus, the programme concepts and content of the licensees have not been changed as demanded. Moreover, the National Council said that representatives of the aforementioned companies continued to ignore the invitations to take part in its meetings.