Discovery, MTV and National Geographic may disappear from Belarus
In an matter of days, a law establishing a single state distributor of foreign television channels may appear in Belarus. According to the "Telecommunications Industry Alliance", the document has been prepared by the Ministry of Information. This information, however, is neither confirmed nor denied at the office of the organization.
"I will not comment on this for you. Nor will I tell you who can," ends the conversation Viktoryia Myaleshka, head of legal and personnel department of the Ministry of Information.
If the rumors about the new law and its signing before the end of the year are confirmed, the telecommunication market in Belarus will change radically. Two dozen of todays distributors, spreading foreign channels will disappear. Many small operators serving customers of cable television will go bankrupt.
Of course, the situation can also affect every Belarusian. Apart from the local ones, there will only remain Russian channels and small niche channels from Europe.
Why foreign brands will simply leave our market
Representatives of the "Telecommunications Industry Alliance" claim to have received information about the new law from competent and credible sources.
The TIA Chairman of the Board Alena Klyuykova described the implications of the possible signing of the law. And the global problem here is the emergence of a single state distributor, which will distribute foreign channels.
"The fact is that large companies such as Discovery, Sony, Universal, National Geographic and many others do not work with the state distributors. It is written in their statutory documents," explains Klyuykova.
The second problem is that if the company promotes thematic channels (for example, about the nature or sport), it rejects the distributor which has already signed an agreement with its competitors. Otherwise there could be a leak of information on pricing, advertising and marketing policy of the competing company.
The situation looks like the redistribution of the market, as if someone is trying to get hold of it.
Chairman of the TIA Board also listed other consequences. When many popular channels disappear from the telecommunications market, the subscribers will be disconnected from the cable operators. Only the increased tariffs can compensate the disappearance. But the economic crisis has hit people. The serious tariff increase is out of question. Operation will be unprofitable. In addition, many operators two years ago bought digital equipment, partly it was done for the foreign currency. This investment has not been recouped. If the new law does appear, most cable operators will disappear.
Preparation for information warfare or redistribution of the market?
Among other things it was discussed that the idea of creating a single distributor is an attempt to take all the foreign TV channels under control. Thus, the State allegedly reacted to the war in Ukraine, where the negative role was played by Russian television channels and their propaganda. However, Alena Klyuykova was sceptical about this.
"A year ago there was signed a new draft of the law on mass media. The telecommunication operators received the same rights and obligations as suppliers. Therefore, the state has plenty of mechanisms to enable, disable, remove etc. In this regard, all has already been done. Thus the situation looks like a redistribution of the market, as if someone is getting hold of it," analyzes Klyuykova.
The expert stressed that the possible changes are contrary to the law "On Mass Media", where the monopolization of the media is prohibited.
The Telecommunications Industry Union appealed to the Presidential Administration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Council of Ministers to prevent changes in the legislation.
Photos: k-dramaland.com, tos-by.com
