Paper can't handle everything

The government promises to subsidize the delivery of newspapers and magazines

In anticipation of the upcoming elections in the country, the executive branch is establishing the smooth functioning of the fourth power. The government promised publishers to consider partially financing the delivery of newspapers and magazines to readers by subsidizing tariffs. First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced this yesterday at the conference “Media, Book Publishing, Printing”. According to him, this issue has already been discussed at a meeting with the participation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, Rospechat, the Ministry of Communications, and the postal department. “After the FAS reconciliation, we can talk about considering the issue of a subsidy that will allow us to keep the tariff within reasonable limits,” Mr. Medvedev said.

However, there is no final decision yet on who will receive the subsidy so that it, in the words of the Deputy Prime Minister, “is effective.” Either publishers or distributors can be financed, and the authorities have not yet decided who to give preference to. “Both designs have pros and cons. Subsidies from publishers are more targeted, subsidies from distributors are more democratic in nature, and this is where the main divide lies,” said Dmitry Medvedev. - We will make a final decision in the near future and after that we will decide. Now the tariff itself is being considered by the Ministry of Finance.”

However, measures to support “paper” periodicals did not provoke such a discussion at the conference as government initiatives in the field of “delivery” of television media products. Mr. Medvedev announced the almost complete readiness of the concept of the federal target program for television and radio broadcasting, the main purpose of which is the transition to digital broadcasting. However, some believe that this technologically advanced innovation will lead to inequality among broadcasters. According to the general director of the Prof-Media holding, Rafael Akopov, the concept “is based on the principles of unequal, non-competitive access of broadcasters to the digital spectrum.” In particular, as he noted, according to the concept, Rosokhrankultura will not license the Big Three TV channels (Channel One, Rossiya Channel and NTV). In addition, according to him, “the concept is clearly anti-viewer in nature,” since after the transition to digital, some commercial and currently free TV channels will become paid.

However, Mr. Medvedev assured that “a significant part of the existing channels will be introduced into multiplexes as free channels. And the question of how to distribute channels across multiplexes is a technological problem, not a substantive one.” He considers the main thing to be “content”. “The main task is that, as a result of revolutionary technological innovations, everything that exists today that is useful should be preserved. It is obvious that the transition to digital technologies is not only a technological challenge, but also a creative challenge,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister. In his opinion, “the low quality of a television product devalues ​​the idea itself, and here too there is something to think about, because after the transition to digital broadcasting, not only and not so much frequencies, but also content will have value.”

Irina BELASHEVA