Russian PM signs decree to set up public broadcaster

Russia’s prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree to establish a public broadcasting service. The decree sets the framework for the new non-profit broadcasting organisation.

The organisation, OTR, is headed by Anatoly Lysenko as director-general. Igor Naigovzin has reportedly been appointed as technical director, while programming will reportedly be the responsibility of Stanislav Arkhipov, a former RTR executive and one of the founders of TV Center.

The first meeting of the OTR board is set to take place on October 4.  It is not yet clear how the new service will be financed and distributed. The original plan called for the Russian defence ministry to relinquish frequencies used for its Star broadcast service. However, minister of communications Nikolai Nikiforov said last month that it may not be necessary for the public broadcaster to acquire analogue frequencies.

The public broadcasting service, a pet project of Medvedev during the last few months of his presidency, was originally scheduled to begin operating at the beginning of next year. However, little work has been done to date and Lysenko has reportedly said that the launch of operations may now happen in May.