Ukraine resumes licensing

Ukraine’s media regulator has resumed issuing licences for broadcasters after a delay of about a year due to disputes about the method of calculating fees, according to local reports.

Vladimir Mazhosov, head of the National Council for Television and Radio, said that a government decision on the prices that could be charged for licences had enabled the process to resume. The renewal of licensing will allow broadcasters to launch new channels with a degree of regulatory certainty. However, IPTV providers have protested about the requirement that they license channels on the same terms as national broadcasters, despite their more limited reach.