TVS (Russia)
Encyclopedia
TVS was a private Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n television network which was shut down by the Press Ministry of Russia on June 22, 2003.

Creation

On January 11, 2002, a separate Russian television channel, TV-6 lost a court battle over bankruptcy and was placed into liquidation by a unanimous decision of thirteen judges of the Russian Supreme Arbitration Court
Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation is the court of final instance in commercial disputes in Russia. Additionally, it supervises the work of lower courts of arbitration and gives interpretation of laws and elucidations concerning their implementations, which are compulsory...

.

At midnight on January 22, 2002 the Press Ministry pulled TV-6 off the air. The frequency was temporarily filled with programming from the NTV Plus Sports satellite channel. The auction for TV-6's old frequency took place on March 27, 2002. The Media-Sotsium partnership won the frequency auction, becoming the licensee and broadcaster, with the employees of the former channel TV-6 forming much of the production staff.

On June 1, 2002 TVS began broadcasting. On July 22, 2002 the Moscow Arbitration Court ruled that MNVK was taken off the air unlawfully.

Editorial Policy

Many Russians and foreigners consider TVS' editorial policy to be critical towards the government of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 and Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Kasyanov
Mikhail Mikhailovich Kasyanov - was the Prime Minister of Russia from May 2000 to February 2004.He is the leader of the People's Democratic Union and an ex-member of the opposition coalition "The Other Russia".-Political career:...

. It was considered to be the last channel with completely independent editorial policy.

Closure

Suffering from low ratings (the main channel projects, Dengi series and reality show Za steklom 3: Teper ty v armii failed) and poor advertising revenue, TVS had many financial problems. TVS's debt to Vneshekonombank (the Bank for Foreign Economic Activity) came to about USD$100 million. TVS also owed more than $6 million in back pay to employees, who had not been paid for some three months.

Mostelekom (the city-owned cable operator that carried TVS in Moscow) began switching TVS' signal off Moscow's cable television networks on June 2, 2003, which rendered more than 90% of Moscow residents unable to view it. Mostelekom demanded that the TV company's shareholders pay off arrears of RUB 245,672m ($8 million).

On June 17, 2003 TVS editor-in-chief Evgeny Kiselyov announced that lack of funding had made it impossible for the company to continue operating, and that after June 23 the channel suspended broadcasting.

Stating it was "for viewers' benefit" the Ministry of Press switched off all TVS broadcasts on June 22, 2003 – 24 hours before the shutdown planned by station management. It was widely speculated in the press that such a hurried closure was performed to prevent the final broadcast of Evgeny Kiselyov's "Itogi" show, the only remaining opposition political broadcast at the time. Later MNVK allowed the state all-sports channel to broadcast on the vacant channel 6.
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