DUSHANBE, March 3, 2009, Asia-Plus – The administration of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK), which owns the RTR-Planeta Channel, has not yet reacted to termination of the RTR-Planeta broadcasting in Tajikistan, the director general of open joint-stock company (OJSC) Teleradiocom Suhrob Aliyev told Asia-Plus today.
In the meantime, VGTRK yesterday expressed concern about alleged termination of Radio of Russia, which is also part of VGRTK, broadcasting in Tajikistan, said Aliyev. “In the meantime, nobody has terminated the Radio of Russia broadcasting in Tajikistan,” the Teleradiocom top manager said.
We will recall that Tajik authorities stopped relaying RTR-Planeta on March 2 because VGRTK has not yet signed a broadcasting contract for 2009.
“One and half months ago, we sent a letter to the VGTRK administration, asking to raise the technical service fees by 50 percent,” said the Teleradiocom director general, “We noted that if the fees are not raised, we will stop relaying RTR-Planeta on March1. Since we have not yet received reply from them and the issue has not been solved, we stopped relaying RTR-Planeta on March 2.”
According to him, if the financial issue is solved in the near future, they will resume RTR-Planeta broadcasting in the country.
It is to be noted that RTR-Planeta was the only Russian TV channel broadcasted in Tajikistan. In 1997, Public Russian television (ORT), currently Channel One, was terminated for the same reasons.
According to CA News, only 15 percent of Tajikistan’s population having satellite dishes now may pick up Russian TV programs.
RTR-Planeta is an integral part of RTR”s commitment to global broadcasting and provides Russian-speaking audiences around the globe with a solid ethnic connection. RTR-Planeta is an international 24-hour general channel available throughout the world via cable and satellite. In fact, RTR Planeta is the only provider of Russian-language programming to the Asia-Pacific region covered by the AsiaSat2 Satellite.
