Russia's public television, proposed by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev, will be funded by donations from citizens, and will be a platform for various political forces to express their views, Interfax reported on Monday, citing a source in presidential administration familiar with the project.

The new TV channel, according to the Communications Ministry, will be free of influence from the state and will not be given any budget money.

The final plan for the channel should be ready by March 1.

Public TV will be platform for discussions

Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev suggested creating a completely new TV channel without using any of resources from existing channels.

The main point of the new channel will be organizing free political discussions. The channel will be registered as a non-commercial organisation, and will be headed by a CEO/editor-in-chief. There will also be a council and board of directors.

Additional control will be exercised by a public television council, who will make sure the editorial policy is not influenced by a third party, and that it conforms to moral norms. The supervisory council will control the management of the channel.

The candidates for the public television council will have to be suggested by the president, parliament, the Orthodox Church and other traditional religions.

"It is a program concept of high taste, but not elite [taste]," said chairman of the presidential council Mikhail Fedotov. "It is not art-house, but neither is it pop, so when we talk about entertainment on the channel, we mean not degrading entertainment, but entertainment that allows a person to become smarter, to learn something new."

Channel will be funded via donations

It will have nationwide coverage, and will also be in the first set of digital channels to be released. The ministry estimates the cost of the project at 1 billion rubles, and it will cost several billion a year from then on.

The Finance Ministry rejected the system of licence fees, like in the UK, as it contradicts Russian tradition of free TV. Direct investment and money from the budget were also rejected as it could raise doubts as to the channel's lack of government agenda.

Advertising was also ruled out, and in the end the ministry decided to form a pool of capital made up of donations, controlled by a management company.

Project is not finalised

However, members of the working group told Gazeta.ru that this proposal is not final, and there are still some unanswered questions.

One of the possible options is to reform VGTRK (state-owned group of channels including Rossiya, Rossiya-2, Rossiya-24), or to create a production company that would create content that would be shown on federal TV channels.

Keywords: Russia, Media - Russia News - Russia

Russia's public television, proposed by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev, will be funded by donations from citizens, and will be a platform for various political forces to express their views, Interfax reported on Monday, citing a source in presidential administration familiar with the project.

The new TV channel, according to the Communications Ministry, will be free of influence from the state and will not be given any budget money.

The final plan for the channel should be ready by March 1.

Public TV will be platform for discussions

Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev suggested creating a completely new TV channel without using any of resources from existing channels.

The main point of the new channel will be organizing free political discussions. The channel will be registered as a non-commercial organisation, and will be headed by a CEO/editor-in-chief. There will also be a council and board of directors.

Additional control will be exercised by a public television council, who will make sure the editorial policy is not influenced by a third party, and that it conforms to moral norms. The supervisory council will control the management of the channel.

The candidates for the public television council will have to be suggested by the president, parliament, the Orthodox Church and other traditional religions.

"It is a program concept of high taste, but not elite [taste]," said chairman of the presidential council Mikhail Fedotov. "It is not art-house, but neither is it pop, so when we talk about entertainment on the channel, we mean not degrading entertainment, but entertainment that allows a person to become smarter, to learn something new."

Channel will be funded via donations

It will have nationwide coverage, and will also be in the first set of digital channels to be released. The ministry estimates the cost of the project at 1 billion rubles, and it will cost several billion a year from then on.

The Finance Ministry rejected the system of licence fees, like in the UK, as it contradicts Russian tradition of free TV. Direct investment and money from the budget were also rejected as it could raise doubts as to the channel's lack of government agenda.

Advertising was also ruled out, and in the end the ministry decided to form a pool of capital made up of donations, controlled by a management company.

Project is not finalised

However, members of the working group told Gazeta.ru that this proposal is not final, and there are still some unanswered questions.

One of the possible options is to reform VGTRK (state-owned group of channels including Rossiya, Rossiya-2, Rossiya-24), or to create a production company that would create content that would be shown on federal TV channels.