Russia modernizes media regs

New rules ensuring media freedom to become introduced in Russia on Thursday can help boost publish-financial crisis recovery for content-on-demand and nontraditional platforms inside a pay TV market worth a lot more than $1 billion each year. They eliminate limited rules on registration for Internet along with other-new media platforms that offer TV services, abolish licenses for secondary relay broadcast services and tightly define the privileges and responsibilities of TV license holders. "The brand new rules tend to be more transparent, dynamic, flexible and progressive," Dmitry Golovanov, a broadcasting lawyer and expert for that European Audiovisual Observatory told Variety on Tuesday. Tv stations have the authority to use any media to provide their content -- terrestrial, cable, satellite, Internet -- without additional licenses or registration. The guidelines specify that only editorial boards have the effect of broadcast content. According to reforms attracted up this past year by Russia's top court within the first changes towards the publish-Soviet media laws and regulations introduced two decades ago, the alterations can make conducting business for brand new-media and pay TV operators easier and fewer costly, Golovanov stated. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com