Ukrainian TV channels to start broadcasting to Crimea on Ukraine’s Independence Day
Five Ukrainian TV channels will start broadcasting to annexed Crimea on Ukraine’s Independence Day – August 24, Serhiy Kostinsky, a member of the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council, told Krym.Realii.
“The National Council is supposed to issue licenses – this is a technical process. All of the necessary equipment for organizing digital TV broadcasting to Crimean territory has already been established, and is waiting for the broadcasters.
Preparing the licenses will take some time, now the companies are supposed to make agreements with the companies who built the towers,” Kostinsky said, referring to the process which would last until the end of the tender.
He noted that the construction of another towere to be broadcast to the Crimea is planned for next year. There are also plans to increase the number of TV channels and radio stations which will be accessible in the territory annexed by Russia.
On July 27, the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine named the five Ukrainian TV channels which had won the tender and would soon begin broadcasting to annexed Crimea. They were: UA:Krym, Black Sea TV and Radio Company, ICTV, 5 Kanal, and Pryamiy (Tonis). The TV channels have an audience of more than 200,000 Crimeans.
The National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council of Ukraine has been developing a project on the strategic development of TV and radio broadcasts in Kherson province and the organizing of broadcasts to annexed Crimean territory. The goal of the strategy is to improve the level of analog and digital broadcasting coverage in the Kherson province and also to exclude the reception of analog and digital broadcasts from the annexed territory in the southern regions of mainland Ukraine.