Russian cable association calls for free access to apartment buildings

Russia’s cable association, the ACTR, has called for adequate financial compensation for the must-carry status granted to channels in the country’s second digital-terrestrial multiplex and has called for guaranteed free access to apartment complexes from housing companies to install equipment to receive services, according to local reports.

Speaking at the CSTB event in Moscow, ACTR president Yuri Pripachkin said that the organisation had worked with the Russian ministry of communications to prepare amendments to legislation concerning access to in-building infrastructure.

The cable association reportedly wants to see operators compensated for the increase in the number of channels in the madatory package they must supply to all households and to secure a legally binding guarantee of access to infrastructure inside apartment buildings, where owners often attempt to levy charges.