Gazprom-Media is the only major radio holding in the Russian Federation that is afraid of sanctions and does not want to work in Crimea
Moscow - Simferopol, February 18 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Shtamm) - Gazprom-Media, the leader in the number of radio stations in Moscow and their combined audience, was the only major Moscow holding company that did not want to broadcast directly in Crimea, according to a study of the Crimean radio market conducted by RBC.
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38 companies from Russia decided to participate in the bidding announced by the Federal Competition Commission under Roskomnadzor for the right to broadcast in Crimea and Sevastopol, according to the information published on the agency’s website.
Until now, of the capital's radio holdings, only the Russian Media Group worked directly in Crimea. This month it received universal licenses to broadcast in Crimea and Sevastopol for Russian Radio and Maximum, and submitted applications for participation in competitions.
The competitions will take place on February 25. The state will be represented at the competitions by the radio station of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation “Zvezda”, the radio station “Mir” and Radio Orpheus, which specializes in classical music.
Among commercial groups, Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda and Russian News Service are vying for frequencies in Crimea. The European Media Group (EMG) entered four of its seven formats into the competition: “Europe Plus”, “Road Radio”, “Retro FM” and “Radio 7”, although they are already broadcasting in Crimea through local partners. The Krutoy Media holding submitted an application on its own behalf to Love Radio and Radio Dachu. And “Multimedia Holding” is ready to establish broadcasting of “Our Radio” in Crimea.
At the same time, the competitions were completely ignored by the largest holding company Gazprom-Media, whose nine radio stations (Autoradio, Humor FM, Energy, Ekho Moskvy, Relax FM, etc.) are the undisputed leaders in terms of the total metropolitan audience. VKPM President Yuri Kostin did not explain to RBC why not a single Gazprom-Media structure submitted applications for the competitions.
Gazprom is afraid of US sanctions, RBC suggests. And he reminds that the American Ministry of Finance, in agreement with the Secretary of State, can impose them on any company that does business in Crimea or finances it. Of the representatives of radio holdings interviewed by RBC, none of them commented on this topic. Roskomnadzor stated that it is not within its competence to assess such risks for competition winners.