Russian pay TV providers see threat from availability proposal

The Russian ministry of communications is reportedly planning to set out stringent service availability requirements for TV service providers.

According to a report in Vedomosti, citing sources close to pay TV operators, the ministry has drawn up a draft measure that would require users not to be left without a TV service for more than nine hours a year.

According to pay TV operators, the proposed measure would require them to build out fully redundant networks to avoid the threat of their licences being removed.

Yuri Pripachkin, the president of cable operators’ association AKTR, has written an open letter to deputy minister of communications Dennis Sverdlov arguing that the proposal does not correspond to any domestic or international practice and would require huge investment in network infrastructure, with costs being passed on to consumers.