TV-6 controversy continues

The term to submit the applications for the participation in the competition for the right to broadcast on the sixth channel of the Russian television was over yesterday. There were fifteen applications submitted in total.

The following companies are among the candidacies for the broadcast: the Sixth Channel (set up by TV-6 and 12 natural persons), the non-commercial partnership Media-Sotsium (belongs to Yevgeny Primakov and Arkady Volsky, the company was set up by the Russian Federation Chamber of Industry and Commerce and by the Russian union of industrialists and entrepreneurs), the companies MIR, 7TV, Channel Six, ATV, the National Olympic Committee.

The Russian Ministry for Press will check out the submitted documents within a week. It is not ruled out that some of the 15 candidacies will weed away before the contest actually takes place. Press Minister Mikhail Lesin thinks that the television channel, which would broadcast its programs on the sixth channel, is supposed to be of the public and political character. There are lots of such channels on Russian TV, but as Lesin thinks, the market is not complete (so, in other words, the idea of the sports channel is dropping out).

For the time being, it is not clear, who the journalists of TV-6 are going to join for the contest – either it is going to be the Sixth Channel (where the journalists own ten percent of shares), or Media-Sotsium non-commercial partnership.

The Sixth Channel and Media-Sotsium will bring their efforts together in the struggle for the broadcasting licence, having joined the non-commercial partnership. In this case both the Sixth Channel and Media-Sotsium will have to go. The companies have recently conducted negotiations on the subject.

The former director of TV-6, Yevgeny Kisilev said that they have had negotiations with Yevgeny Primakov and Arkady Volsky recently, and progressed a lot to elaborate the variant of the joint participation in the struggle for the sixth channel. Kisilev said that they had achieved a consent on the subject. But the process to submit a joint application is a long one, there should be changes introduced in the charter documentation, so the parties decided to submit separately.

Although the Ministry for Press asserts that they are happy about the large number of the contestants, but it is evident that if the Sixth Channel and Media-Sotsium amalgamate, then the winner will be known before the contest is over. By the way, the idea about Primakov and Volsky’s participation in the team originated from Mikhail Lesin, and that idea was approved by the president.

Sergey Yugov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov