Published: 17 August, 2009, 11:40
Edited: 17 August, 2009, 11:40
The Russian government has vowed to bring digital TV into every home by 2015. The move would increase the number of channels and the quality of the picture.
Currently, millions of Russians in remote areas can only watch TV using antennae which do not provide a clear signal. Moreover, sometimes they can only receive one channel. That's why the government wants to bring digital TV to every home.
“My TV set receives only one station. I watch news bulletins and movies sometimes,” says 87-year-old pensioner Fyodor Kedrov.
He spent most of his life working as a carpenter and built the country house he lives in with his own hands. Now in retirement, Fyodor prefers to spend most of his time working in the garden, building and rarely watching TV.
“I don't like the amount of violence they show nowadays. I prefer to spend time in the garden – the trees are much better than any television,” Kedrov says.
Experts say a lot needs to change first, not least the law.
“Unfortunately the current legislation is still based on the old pattern when there were only a few stations which make and show their own programs. This is outdated. We need a new legal base where channels and content producers are separated – just like it is in real life,” proposes the head of Russian Cable TV Association Yury Pripachkin.
Digital TV is becoming increasingly popular in Russian cities. Good signal quality and a wide choice of stations is attracting people to either cable or satellite TV, despite the global economic crisis.
The technical director of AKADO Stolitsa TV-net, Mikhail Medrish, assures that “Digital TV can deliver ten times more channels to the viewer. The picture quality is also ahead of the competition, especially if we talk about high-definition TV which is better than DVD.”
According to the Government's plan, analog TV will continue until the year 2015.
By then, they hope the required infrastructure will be in place, even in the remotest parts of the country, to switch to digital.
TV broadcasting covering the whole area of Russia would be impossible without the use of satellites. So in this way, the country is already digitalized. But supplying every viewer with a digital receiver with hundreds of channels is a different task altogether. Although the amount of subscribers is growing, the lack of a proper legal base and the old-fashioned mentality of some viewers are not making it any easier.