HRA President on Suspension of Russian First Channel Broadcasting

The suspension of the broadcast of the Russian First Channel through Armenia's public multiplex is exclusively an economic issue. This was stated by HRA President Tigran Hakobyan in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.

"The problem is purely economic. The Armenian Radio and Television's broadcasting network has a contract with the Russian First Channel, under which the latter is obliged to cover the broadcasting costs every month, which is quite a small amount—around $3,000 per month. This is the same amount that our local channels pay for broadcasting in the capital, meaning there is no difference," Hakobyan said, expressing the opinion that such a large company as the First Channel would not find this amount significant.

It should be noted that the broadcasting of the Russian First Channel in Armenian territory has been suspended. The Minister of High-Tech Industry Mikayel Hayrapetyan stated to Armenpress that the Russian First Channel failed to fulfill its contractual obligations, accumulating 2.5 months of debt, which caused its broadcast to be temporarily suspended until the debt is fully settled.

The HRA president revealed that, according to his information, the management of ORT had been warned several times about settling the debt. "Last week, several licensed Armenian television channels that had accumulated much smaller debts were also deprived of their broadcast. I can mention 'Nor Hayastan', '21 TV', 'Freenews', 'Fortuna', and '5th Channel'. That is, regardless of their political affiliation, all broadcasters accumulating debts are regularly deprived of their broadcast, which, according to the contract, is a normal process," Hakobyan noted, expressing hope that the Russian company would settle the debt in the near future and return to broadcasting.

"I believe it is unfair for a wealthy state's powerful broadcaster not to pay while local broadcasters in Armenia do. This is called discrimination," he told the media.

Hakobyan recalled that there were issues in the past with delays in payments connected with the Russian television company. However, previously the legislative regulations were different, and in Armenia, according to his assessment, motivated by political reasons, the broadcast of the First Channel was not suspended. "From 2011 to 2020, the channel at one point, if I am not mistaken, even did not pay for broadcasting. There was a mediator organization with which ORT had a contract, and the financial obligations were placed on a local company that did not make payments. However, in 2019, when I became the chairman of the commission, I sent letters to the leadership of the First Channel, specifically to Konstantin Ernst, and received a response that all issues were related to the local mediator because they were providing their program to this mediator for free. We warned the mediator that it was a semi-solved organization, and in my view, the motivation to keep the First Channel on air was purely political because they did not want to offend our ally," Tigran Hakobyan stated to the media.

According to the HRA president, today both local and foreign broadcasters operate under new legislative regulations in Armenia, which ensure equal competitive conditions, for which broadcasters are obliged to fulfill their contractual obligations properly.

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