RUSSIAN TV COMPANIES MAKING HALF-YEAR REVIEWS, PREPARING FOR TRANSFER TO DIGITAL BROADCASTING

MOSCOW, August 27 (RIA Novosti) - The telecasting market has remained dynamic in 2004, and grew by 36 percent in January through July, as compared by the same period last year, Andrei Safronov, Director General of the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters, said at a press conference Friday. "The market has been dynamic; over the year's first half, its volume came to $720-730 million," he specified, adding that Russia's print media and radio broadcasters were now showing the same tendency. In the past four years, the amount of advertisement proceeds has almost tripled, from 1.1 billion dollars in the year 2000 to a projected $3.1 billion by the end of 2004.

Safronov also announced his association's intention to contribute to the program of transfer to digital television. "We are talking about the necessity of forming a large group that would be putting together a project to introduce digital broadcasting and would represent the interests of all the segments of the market."

In May, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov instructed the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the Culture Ministry, and the Ministry of Energy that in 2005, they should work out a program for the development in Russia of the European digital television format Digital Video Broadcasting and then submit to the Cabinet for approval. This format makes it possible to transmit much more television channels in the same bandwidth.

"We should not let it (the program) be adopted without the industry's public involvement," said Yelena Zolotareva, Deputy Director-General of the Kultura television channel and Vice President of the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters. Speaking at the same press conference, she pointed out that the planned switchover to digital broadcasting will place a burden on Russian television viewers, who will have to buy special equipment to be able to receive the new type of signal. She said it was important that this burden be shared with other market participants.

Leaders of the National Association of Television and Radio Broadcasters acknowledge that TV companies will have to come up with ways to attract a new audience and to compensate for its expenses by offering an innovative and high-quality product. "So far, the content leaves much to be desired," Zolotareva admitted.

Thus, the transfer to digital telecasting will toughen the otherwise tough fight for audiences between broadcasters. At the moment, major players of Russia's television market compete in pairs. ORT and Rossia are on top (according to the Association's statistics, these channels controlled 20 to 25 percent of the national audience during the first six months of 2004); the NTV-TVS pair come second, with 10-12 percent of the audience; these are followed by TNT and Ren-TV (5-7 percent, respectively); TVTs and Kultura are forth, with 3-5 percent. Other telecasters (such as MuzTV, DTV, 7TV, and MTV) enjoy the attention of a pathetic 1 percent of the nation's audience or even less than that, Association officials say.