"Figures" and facts

While government departments are mastering the budget for measures to switch to digital broadcasting, private operators have already covered the country with “digital”

While government departments are mastering the budget for measures to switch to digital broadcasting, private operators have already covered the country with “digital”

June 2, 2012. Mayanga village, Balakovsky district, Saratov region. Around 11 pm. A large room in the house of the Popov farmers. Local men are seated in front of the plasma screen. Football is on TV in three minutes. Europe championship. Ours with the Poles. The hostess once again warns - "do not yell, like at the last game and smoke in the yard." A journalist came to us on a business trip. He nods in my direction.

The TV picture came from the stadium. Visibility is amazing.

-Do you often have group viewings? - I'm interested in the owner of the house.

• Yes, every day someone comes. I scold my son. The militants drive with classmates all day long. My wife and neighbors have serials. The same more than a hundred channels. For any interest. I don't have time to look. But we are all rooting for Russia.

The Popovs have the only satellite dish in the area. Beauty. Digital format. Nikolai Vasilyevich was not stingy. Laid out last fall 10,950 rubles for a set with a connection.

• It turns out that he took a little expensive, - the owner complains. There are better ones, and half the price.

The rest of the people are waiting. They watch one "Russia" at home. Other channels do not show. Well, Vasilich lets him in. So they would listen to the championship on the radio.

• Everyone tells us about modernization, about high technologies, - Anatoly Akimovich, a former rural district policeman, supported the conversation during the break. As if we're against it. And the bus to the regional center was canceled four years ago. The ambulance, with all the desire, will not arrive earlier than an hour and a half. Firefighters can not be called, they will only get to the firebrands. And with the same television. How much do we hear about these plates. Will be available. According to the state program. Before you turn the antenna, five channels, even if it’s bad, they show. Now one somehow. That's the whole upgrade...

• It seems that they promised subsidies for satellite equipment, - the only owner of the miracle of television technology continues the topic. - But we are waiting for the promised for a long time. I think that all modernization will fall on the shoulders of commercial operators. They will compete with each other. Reduce service prices. For example, in the district center, in the private sector, every second person has satellite dishes.

This year Russia celebrated the tenth anniversary of the "beginning of the transition" to digital broadcasting. The first tests of television numbers took place in 2000 on the territory of the Nizhny Novgorod region. To implement ambitious plans, under the auspices of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RGTS) is working with a budget of 26.3 billion rubles. Over the past period, several state programs "for the development of digital television in the Russian Federation" have been adopted. The timing of the transition to a new broadcasting format was adjusted the same number of times. It was planned that the lion's share of Russians would be at ease by February 2010. Later, the timing of the transition to broadcasting DT (digital television) was moved to 2015. At a press conference in Kazan, in October of this year, RGTS Deputy Chairman Viktor Pinchuk honestly admitted that it is necessary to wait a little more with the beginning of the digital era.

• We will ask the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications to make adjustments to the existing plan. Postpone a little. I would not like to name specific dates, - announced the official, taught by bitter experience.

Then, under pressure from journalists, he nevertheless named an approximate date for the completion of work and revealed some nuances:

• It is proposed to stretch the entire process of switching off analogue broadcasting until 2017. According to the developed concept for switching off the analog broadcast, after the completion of the construction of the digital television network in the regions, an information and explanatory campaign should be carried out within 18 months. In addition, it is planned to develop proposals to support socially disadvantaged groups of the population so that they can have access to digital television.

It turns out that at first all TVs will be turned off, and then for 18 months they will talk about how to live on. Apparently, the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications does not have the opportunity to combine these two processes. It makes no sense to talk about "support for socially disadvantaged segments of the population" now. Proposals to this effect appear in the distant plans of officials. That's right, why run ahead of the locomotive. The current adjustment of the timing of the transition to DH was adopted with the wording "in view of the difficult economic situation." Come on, guess what's in store for us tomorrow...

While interested government agencies are using budget money with their inherent passion, commercial operators are conquering the vast Russian television spaces. Which "digitize" the country. More successful than the state.

Whatever one may say, one cannot do without a plate in the Russian outback. In one-story Russia, it is pointless to weave cable networks. Where the terrain does not allow, where the distance from the device that receives the signal. A nationwide "digital program" should have been adopted in the first place, based on the interests of the country's citizens living in the provinces.

• The state program for the transition to a new format of television broadcasting is being implemented so slowly that commercial operators have already completed most of the tasks assigned to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, - says Maria Zhilina, Marketing Director of satellite television operator Orion Express.

The history of this company largely reflects the situation in the field of domestic satellite broadcasting. Five years ago, having invited Fondservisbank as a shareholder and received financial support from it, it quickly broke into the high-tech television market, where by that time NTV + and Tricolor TV had reached the heights. And at the beginning of this December, she already connected a millionth Russian family to her satellite television. Whereas NTV + still does not have even 700 thousand ...

• The principle of television from "Orion Express" is very simple: it should be cheap to connect to us. And we have done everything possible and impossible for this. And satellite television should be available everywhere, throughout the country, in any "bear corner", in the tundra, in the mountains, in the far and near dacha, - says Mikhail Dubrovsky, head of the PR service of the company, which has the largest territory coverage not only in Russia and Europe, but in the world. And the satellite must be reliable. While competitors are bringing expiring space "grandfathers" from America, Orion Express, backed by an investor, Fondservicebank, broadcasts from modern and powerful spacecraft like Horizon 2.

2010 is considered a real breakthrough in Orion, when, following the Continent TV project, which now has more than 100 selected channels, 10 of which are in high-definition format, it was possible to realize the idea of ​​creating a Telecard package with an optimal set of 45 the most necessary and demanded channels. Russian and foreign channels - brands.

• It is easy to understand that the most frantic viewer is physically unable to regularly watch two or more hundreds and more channels, as some operators offer, - Mikhail Dubrovsky shares his opinion. - A person always has two, two and a half dozen channels in his favorites, which he prefers. The rest just don't care. We took this factor into account when creating Telekarta. As a result, our subscribers got access to inexpensive, very high-quality TV, largely due to which we managed to become one of the three leading satellite television operators in Russia and double the number of our subscribers for three years in a row.

• For us, the concept of affordability of connection to Orion-Express is the key one, - considers Maria Zhilina. - The company made a bet on the distribution of satellite broadcasting in the regions - and did not lose. Here, the main thing is to maintain the exact balance of "price - quality". We understand that the vast majority of residents of the Russian hinterland count every ruble. The price factor will remain decisive in the near future. Therefore, when we provide the opportunity to connect to Orion Express at half the price of our main competitors, many make a choice in our favor. Projects like "Telecard" do not bring much profit. They are designed for long-term evolutionary development of both the country and the company.

That is, in Russia as usual. The salvation of the “digitalizing”, as well as the drowning, is the work of their own hands. While the statesmen are transferring everything and transferring from the fifth to the tenth terms of the arrival of digital television in every home, the "plates" from private operators have long been ready for installation. It looks like it's time to set it up, without waiting for mercy from the state program, which, like a police "flashing light" from a joke, either works or not ...

Ruslan GATAULLIN