Government to buy out Russian TV channel’s broadcasting licence in Kazakhstan

13.12.2023, 16:23 exclusive.kz

The Kazakh government plans to buy out Russian Channel One’s broadcasting rights in the country, as part of a move to reduce Russian-made TV content, reports said on Wednesday, citing the Information Ministry.

The plans concern Channel One’s (Pervyy Kanal) 20-percent share in Channel One Eurasia (Pervyy Kanal Evraziya). The remaining 80 percent of it is owned by the Television News Agency, which is part of the national Kazakhstan Radio and Television Company.

“Funding has been allocated to buy out in 2024 [Channel One Eurasia] TV channel’s licence. It is part of continuing efforts to increase the amount of domestic content and, correspondingly, reduce foreign content,” the Ministry said, according to Orda.kz website.

According to the Audit Committee’s documents published by Orda.kz this week, in 2019-2020 the Kazakh government spent 3.9bn tenge (about 8.5m dollars) on programmes made by Channel One.

“The content purchased from Russia’s Channel One is not aimed at consistent and purposeful coverage of the Kazakh state policy priorities. It concerns Russian society’s news and problems,” the document said.

The Information Ministry said in the past that Russian-made programmes made up less than 20 percent of all content shown on Channel One Eurasia. It stressed the programmes in question were entertainment, not “information or political programmes”.

The Kazakh parliament is currently considering a new draft media law that, if adopted, will increase the required amount of Kazakh-language content for TV and radio broadcasters from the current 50 to 70 percent.

The transition to the new requirement is planned to be gradual – from 2025 the broadcasters will have to increase Kazakh-language content by 5 percent annually.

Channel One Eurasia was created in 1997. It is one of the most popular TV channels in Kazakhstan.