The winner is judged

The results of the competition for Channel 6 do not decide anything yet

Today the winner of the competition for the right to broadcast on the sixth meter frequency (“sixth button”) will be announced. The two months that passed after TV-6 stopped broadcasting on the night of January 22 were very reminiscent of the election campaign, for example, to the State Duma. Unexpected candidates, incredible pre-election alliances, unbridled campaigning, promises and promises, the use of “black” PR (however, in very moderate doses) - all the paraphernalia of the electoral process accompanied the struggle of 13 candidates for Channel 6.

In television circles over the past two weeks, it has been considered good manners to say with confidence that the name of the winner is known. Indeed, the alliance of Evgeny Primakov and Evgeny Kiselev was and remains the favorite of the competition until the announcement of the results. However, surprises cannot be ruled out.

In any case, the victory will not be as sweet as it might seem in the first days. Firstly, the channel still needs to be created. And secondly, regardless of the verdict rendered by the Federal Competition Commission, the resolution of the issue of broadcasting on the “sixth button” threatens to drag on for a long time, and the future winner will not be able to start work until September.

Until January 22, the “sixth button” was occupied by the Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation (MNVK), which was declared bankrupt by the claim of its minority shareholder LUKOIL-Garant. However, until the bankruptcy procedure is completed, MNVK remains the formal owner of the license for the 6th meter frequency, since its validity was only suspended by order of the bailiff. “The broadcasting license can be transferred to the winner of the tender and issued only after we have fully completed the liquidation procedures of MNVK, and a record of its liquidation appears in the register of the Moscow Registration Board,” recalls Igor Shabdurasulov, a member of the board of directors of MNVK.

The liquidation commission has not yet started work, since the main pool of shareholders of the former MNVK and the minority LUKOIL-Garant cannot agree on how to liquidate the company. According to Mr. Shabdurasulov, the process of liquidating the company is delaying LUKOIL-Garant. As he told the Vremya Novostei newspaper, the leadership of MNVK has not recently conducted any negotiations with representatives of this organization. “This doesn't make sense. In my opinion, there is an inadequate perception of reality on their part. We see this in the documents that they submit to us, in the letters that they write to us,” he said.

In turn, Alexander Kozhemyakin, a representative of LUKOIL-Garant, told the Vremya Novostei newspaper that the foundation’s lawyers still consider the creation of a liquidation commission and its activities to be illegal. “Its activities must be organized in strict accordance with current legislation,” he emphasized.

True, the winner of the tender can begin broadcasting with a temporary permit issued by the Ministry of Press. Such permission has already been issued to the NTV-Plus company, which is now presenting its software product on the “sixth button”. However, Mr. Shabdurasulov believes that such a document is not legitimate. “Such a legal form as a permit does not exist in the legislation, and it is not a normative act. Such permission can be challenged in any court,” he emphasized.

In addition, Mr. Shabdurasulov also sees purely technical reasons that may prevent the winner of the competition from starting to master the sixth frequency: “All participants in the competition lack a content program and a technical component: hardware and broadcast studios, filming equipment, places for staff.” Operationally, the missing equipment could be purchased from MNVK, but before the liquidation commission begins its work, there can be no talk of any sale of the equipment.

In addition to licensing difficulties, the potential winner will have other legal problems. The current managers and owners of the deceased MNVK do not agree with her death and are ready to continue legal battles. Thus, the temporary manager of MNVK, Pavel Chernovalov, is already insisting on the “initial and fundamental judicial error” contained in the decisions of various courts, according to which MNVK should be liquidated.

Mr. Chernovalov claims that on September 27 last year, when making a decision to liquidate MNVK, the Moscow Arbitration Court was guided by the fact that the value of the net assets of the television company was insufficient for its further functioning. Meanwhile, according to Pavel Chernovalov, the procedure for assessing net assets must be approved by the Ministry of Justice in accordance with accepted standards. The external manager of MNVK claims that this procedure was not properly registered with the Ministry of Justice and was not published for public information. “Thus, the document cannot be considered to have entered into legal force and cannot be used by the courts when making decisions,” emphasized Pavel Chernovalov.

According to him, this allows both the liquidation commission and the board of directors of MNVK to appeal to the Supreme Arbitration Court so that the decision to liquidate the television company through supervisory procedures is reviewed. The presence of a judicial error in the decisions of the courts in the MNVK case is also confirmed in the conclusions of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the government, the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow Forensic Laboratory of the Ministry of Justice. On March 25, statements about the need to review the decision to liquidate MNVK were sent to the Supreme Arbitration Court, the Supreme Court of Russia and the Prosecutor General's Office. Yesterday, similar applications were submitted to the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region and the Moscow Arbitration Court. All documents proving the need to review the decision to liquidate MNVK have been submitted to the Ministry of Press.

The decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court dated September 27 established a six-month period for the liquidation of MNVK, however, according to Pavel Chernovalov, this does not mean that the company will be liquidated within this period. “The chairman of the liquidation commission may apply to the arbitration court with a petition to extend the period of liquidation. And in our case, when, according to preliminary balance sheet data, accounts payable exceed the company’s assets by $10 million, there is simply no other option other than extending the bankruptcy procedure. So today it is not yet possible to talk about the deadline for liquidating the company,” he said.

Maxim BALUTENKO, Leonid PETROV