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Television to Be Digitalized with a Discount
The Russian Ministry of IT and Communications received on Tuesday a draft for a budget program for the digitalization of Russian television prepared by the federal state unitary enterprise Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Networks. Under that business plan, investment of 159.6 billion rubles (89 billion from the federal budget) will be needed through 2015. Analysts say that that plan is more convincing than the one proposed by the ministry itself, which required more than twice as much money. It would make digital television available to 90 percent of Russian households by 2012. Work on the program is slated to begin this year, with an outlay of 30 billion rubles.
The business plans are identical except for the expenses associated with various points. Both allot 28 billion rubles for financing transmissions, 14.91 billion for building and modernizing transmission towers. Differences in calculations nonetheless bring the ministry's proposed program to a cost of 357.8 billion rubles. For example, the ministry's program foresees expenses of 140 billion rubles for attachments to individual televisions to decode the digital transmissions, while the networks' estimate is 52.5 billion rubles. “We based the cost of attachments on prices proposed by domestic producers, in particular the Russian-Korean joint venture being set up with the Globaltech Co. in Ingushetia,” commented networks' general director Andrey Pautov.
“Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Networks presented a distribution table for the financing of the project,” objected the Communications Ministry's press service, “but they did not provide any detail and did not explain the structure of the expenses.” The ministry did not comment on how it reached its preliminary figures.
Analysts note that the networks' more attractive plan will give it an advantage in choosing contractors for the program. “Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Networks are trying to become the exclusive contractor for the project. A well planned program budget could convince the government that the networks' pretenses are well grounded,” commented MDM Bank analyst Elena Bazhenova. The Communications Ministry may still revise its own program, however.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2007
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