Tricolor makes its service available for free

Leading Russian pay TV operator Tricolor has become the latest major service provider to decrypt its content line-up for a limited period during the Coronavirus crisis.

The operator has made all of its TV channels – 156 in total, including 16 in the premium Detsky package – free-to-view on the internet from Friday last week until April 26.

The operator is also making access to over 350 movies from the Lenfilm and Mosfilm catalogues free-to-view as well as event programming.

The latter includes sports, albeit at a time when there are very few sports events to watch.

Tricolor’s TV channels are available via OTT using the Tricolor movie and TV app on Samusung Tizen smart TVs, Sony and Philips Android smart TVs and LG webOS smart TVs as well as iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. The online TV service is also available via hybrid TV set-tops connected to the internet.

“The latest restrictions introduced by our Government in the fight against the spread of coronavirus oblige many citizens to stay at home. To diversify the leisure of Russians, Tricolor decided to make free online television available for a month. We are sure that the content that is shown on the operator’s channels will brighten up the isolation of our homes and cheer up our citizens,” said Andrei Nesterov, Tricolor’s deputy general director for strategic and operational marketing.

Tricolor is the latest operator to make some or all of its content available unencrypted during the Coronavirus crisis.

Operators across major markets have seen the shut-down of major sports events that are the mainstay of their business.

French pay TV operator made its premium channels available free-to-view in mid-March but was forced to qualify this when other industry players objected.