On January 3 at 16.12 an attack was carried out on the Inter TV channel. The glass of the entrance area on the first floor was broken with bricks and cobblestones. None of the channel’s employees were injured. The press service of the TV channel reports this.
Several people from the group of attackers, of whom there were about 20 masked people, were detained by representatives of the internal affairs bodies.
As is known, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexander Turchynov wrote a letter to the Chairman of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting Yuri Artemenko demanding that the license of the Inter TV channel be canceled for broadcasting speeches by anti-Ukrainian Russian pop figures on New Year’s Eve.
“I would like to draw your attention to the activities of the domestic TV channel Inter, which in its programming policy constantly and openly neglects the national interests of Ukraine,” Turchynov noted.
“A striking manifestation of this was the broadcast on the night of December 31, 2014 to January 1, 2015 of low-grade speeches by citizens of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) who openly support terrorist activities in eastern Ukraine and approve of the illegal aggressive policy of the current Kremlin leadership,” he added.
As you know, on New Year’s Eve, Inter broadcast a concert in which Russian artists Valeria, Iosif Kobzon and Oleg Gazmanov, known for their anti-Ukrainian position, took part. This caused outrage among a number of Ukrainian politicians.
The head of the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, Yuriy Stets, said that he does not intend to contact the National Council on Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine with a request to take away the broadcasting license from the Inter TV channel. He spoke about this on air on the 112 Ukraine TV channel.
“I will not take away the license from Inter – I don’t want to put pressure on the National Council,” the minister said. He also assured that he would never interfere in the work of journalists.
“If Mr. Korban had been appointed Minister of Information Policy, then tomorrow the Inter TV channel would show “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” and “White Bird with a Black Sign.” You just need to have the political will and reach out to the switch. Tested in the Dnepropetrovsk region,” Filatov wrote on his Facebook page.
People’s Deputy of Ukraine, leader of the Radical Party Oleg Lyashko quite expectedly stood up for the Inter TV channel, owned by oligarch Dmitry Firtash and people’s deputy from the Opposition Bloc, ex-head of the Administration of President Viktor Yanukovych Sergei Levochkin. He wrote about this on his Facebook page.
The People’s Deputy was outraged by the “attacks” on the TV channel.
“I have a demand for the National Council: to call not only Inter, but also all the violators: Espresso, which broadcast Putin (*criminal) (and for some reason received only a warning, but should have been closed), and Pluses, which show concerts of persona non grata,” said Lyashko.
It is also known that a meeting of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, which will consider the issue of compliance with Ukrainian legislation on the New Year’s broadcast of the Inter TV channel, will take place on January 15.
The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting will not ignore the New Year’s broadcasts of “1+1” and other TV channels. First Deputy Chairman of the National Council Olga Gerasimyuk told Ukrainian News about this.
“We are monitoring all channels, and at our first meeting we will discuss the problem as a whole. And it lies not only in the sense of concerts, but in the general role of the media in building a national state and strengthening its defense capability, ensuring the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens,” she said.
As you know, on New Year’s Eve, “1+1” broadcast the program “Disco of the 80s” with the participation of Russian singer Oleg Gazmanov.
From the history of the issue:
Information attack on Kolomoisky
In July 2014, the Inter television company launched an information attack on the governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region, the famous Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. He was accused of attempting to seize the southeast of Ukraine, establishing control over the Odessa region, collaborating with Sergei Kurchenko, oil fraud and much more.
The video material, which was aired by the Inter television company, is called “Hello/Private Chameleon”; Kolomoisky is compared to a chameleon there, hinting at a sharp change in political guidelines during Euromaidan. In addition, the oligarch was accused of collaborating with a disgraced member of Yanukovych’s “Family” – Sergei Kurchenko. As evidence, they cited a recording of a telephone conversation, during which they allegedly agreed to meet and resolve some issues.
Jammers and SBU
Last September, adviser to the head of the SBU Markiyan Lubkivsky said that someone was deliberately jamming the signal of the Inter TV channel.
“We were approached by the Inter TV channel with a request to help us understand the cause of the interference on air that systematically occurs on the TV channel during the “Details”, “Details of the Week” programs and the “Black Mirror” talk show. We figured it out. So here it is. We have received information about attacks, starting on August 28, on the AMOS satellite, which relays programs of the Inter TV channel,” Lubkivsky is quoted as saying on the SBU Facebook page.
The fact that problems with Inter’s broadcasting had been recorded was confirmed in October by representatives of various government agencies, with whom Podrobnosti journalists spoke, having previously sent a request. According to SBU press secretary Markiyan Lubkivsky, Inter’s request was carefully considered: it was established that in fact there are very powerful radiation sources (500 kW) that affect the picture. Director of the radio frequency monitoring department of Ukrfrequency Supervision Valery Lazarev says that they were working in the Makarovsky district of the Kyiv region. Supposedly there may be a source of interference there. They, according to him, arise at the stage of sending a signal to the satellite.
Experts interviewed by Inter journalists disagree on where the interference is coming from. Lubkivsky believes that approximately from the south-eastern border of Ukraine. And Lazarev points to the south of the Odessa region, which is in close proximity to Transnistria, and to Kalinovka, Kyiv region. Although the TV viewers who complained about interference on the air of Inter were from Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye.
Ukrfrequencynadzor specialists have not ruled out intentional jamming of the signal, and also assume a malfunction of the transmitting ground station. But they have not yet been able to detect radio interference, since it does not appear systematically (up to 20 minutes during the day, mainly in the evening). The source also does not have a permanent location. “It is possible that it is placed on some kind of vehicle,” noted the Ukrchastatnadzor report.
Alexander Glushchenko, a member of the public council under the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting, believes that interference when sending a signal to a satellite can only be created by professional equipment that can interfere with the Sattelecom signal. If this is not the pampering of radio hooligans, then the approach should be serious. “Roughly speaking, it should be a transmitting “dish” with a diameter of at least 2.5-3 m, which is difficult to miss. Specialists know very well where all such stations can be located,” explained Glushchenko.
The majority of television market representatives interviewed by Capital are very skeptical about Inter’s announced technical problems and believe that this could be a kind of PR stunt. “They only listen to news and political programs, which means that viewers will at least run to double-check the broadcast and see what they are served. During the war in the east and pre-election wars, this method of attracting the attention of the electorate is not excluded,” summarizes Glushchenko.
Perhaps Inter is simply afraid of natural losses in the ratings, says one of the heads of a major TV channel. “I don’t know how this is related to technical interference, but first of all it is a consequence of the fact that they were turned off in Donetsk and Lugansk – in the main regions where there was a large TV viewing of Inter,” he said.
Our performers and customers too, but they hide as soon as they feel that the equipment is covering them and conducting a blockade
In November 2014, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Valentin Nalyvaichenko, said that the fact that the signal of the Inter TV channel was jammed on the territory of a neighboring country with the help of agents was being investigated. He spoke about this on the talk show “Black Mirror”.
“My deputy is returning from a neighboring country. We asked our foreign colleagues to help, because the car on which the signal was jammed was leaving for a neighboring country. As soon as the agent returns, we will capture them, and you will be able to show the car itself, the equipment, and the customers. I can’t name the country,” Nalyvaichenko said.
In addition, Nalyvaichenko noted that several groups are working in the direction of capturing saboteurs on the territory of Ukraine.
“Two special groups of the service operate in the Odessa and Kyiv regions. Our performers and customers too, but they hide as soon as they feel that the equipment is closing them in and conducting a blockade,” the head of the SBU noted.
Ratings and advertising
In December 2014, Inter became the first button in Ukraine, moving STB. Inter immediately increased its share by 3.65% and took the podium with an indicator of 12.87%. Exactly a year ago, according to GfK Ukraine, the TV channel had a market share of 11.81%.
Studio 1+1 ended up in December 2014 remaining in third place with an indicator of 11.20%.
According to StarLightSales estimates, the TV advertising market in 2014 amounted to UAH 3.6 billion.
For 2015, the TV group StarLightMedia of Victor Pinchuk, InterMediaGroup of Dmitry Firtash, Media Group Ukraine of Rinat Akhmetov and 1+1 media of Igor Kolomoisky have determined the pricing policy. It is expected that prices will rise only for advertisers who are not ready to increase budgets for the next year; inflation will average 5-10% in hryvnia.
The cost of one rating point (GRP) in 2015, as in the past, should be 4,000 UAH. For example, the cost of rating (GRP) is $4,000.
The annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbass and the fall of the hryvnia have hit the TV advertising market hard. The market per population shrank by 25%, or more than 10 million consumers.
Pharmaceuticals, Inter and “Studio 1+1″
The main advertisers today are the largest international pharmaceutical concerns; they are not very susceptible to crisis processes – people always get sick and spend money on treatment. And due to the general impoverishment of the population, the closure of hospitals in rural areas, the reduction of hospital beds in cities, the transformation of ambulances into taxis for delivering patients to medical institutions, television for most people turns into the only doctor.
It is noteworthy that the main players in the pharmaceutical advertising market have long been Inter and Studio 1+1.
Epicrisis
It is obvious that on New Year’s Day Inter picked up an “infection” that will come back to haunt its advertising health and more.
Even if Inter manages to identify the elusive jammer dish with the help of Nalyvaichenko, “to capture and show the car itself, the equipment, and the customers,” it will be difficult for the channel to resist the fierce competition. The advertiser will probably leave.