Azerbaijan, Baku / Тrend corr E. Huseynli /
Russia refused to finance broadcasting the Azerbaijan's AzTv channel in its territory. According to a member of the Azerbaijan National Television and Radio Council (NTRC), Gafar Jabiyev, the technical contract presented by Russia does not include financing of the broadcasting.
During the meeting of the Council held at the beginning of January it was decided to terminate the broudcasting of the Russian ORT and RTR-Planeta channels in Azerbaijan. Broadcasting of ORT was stopped on 10 July, and broadcasting of RTR-Planeta was extended, after Russia agreed on an Azerbaijani TV channel to be broadcasted in Russia. The working groups dealing with the case of mutual broadcasting have held two meetings and the initial project on mutual broadcasting has been coordinated. Technical contracts were developed to achieve mutual agreements. Azerbaijan presented its options 2 months ago. The chairman of NTRC repeatedly stated that in the case of not achieving a common agreement, broadcasting of the Russian RTR-Planeta channel via Azerbaijani national frequency would be suspended.
Azerbaijan considers the coverage area of Azerbaijani AzTV in Russia should be as wide as the coverage area of RTR-Planeta in Azerbaijan.
All comments are indicated in the response to Russia's technical contract. The response has been submitted to the Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister, Yagub Eyyubov for consideration.