The North Ossetian authorities decided to close the TV and Radio Company Ossetia TV due to the lack of sufficient budget funding. The decision to liquidate the TV and Radio Company was passed on August 14 at the meeting of the Government of the North Ossetia.
The issue of liquidating the state-owned unitary enterprise TV and Radio Company Ossetia TV was submitted to the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic by Soslan Dzansolov, the Chairman of the Committee for Information Technologies and Mass Communications. According to the press office of the Government of the North Ossetia, the Cabinet of Ministers considers prudent the decision to liquidate the TV and Radio Company. In particular, Leonid Keselbrener, the Acting Deputy Prime Minister, states that to develop the national television project, as intended Ossetia TV, is actually beyond the Republic’s power. The North Ossetia remains in the limited material conditions. The Republic, however, plans to come back to the creation of TV over the long term. As explained by Soslan Dzansolov, the idea of Ossetia TV was to create national television and ensure full broadcasting, including signal relay via satellite. It was supposed that in that way not only the residents of the Republic, but also the ones of other regions of Russia and abroad, who are interested in the North Ossetia’s life, would be able to watch programs of the TV and Radio Company. It’s quite a lot of work and correspondingly large funds, as stated by S. Dzansolov, quoted by the agency 15th Region. As specified by the 15th Region, the Cabinet of Ministers during its meeting adopted a resolution to close the Ossetia TV. Next, the Republic will establish a special liquidation committee for the TV and Radio Company. At the same time Azamat Hadikov, the Acting Prime Minister of the Republic, asked the liquidation committee to hold the accumulated experience of the TV and Radio Company. The Ossetia TV, according to the agency 15th Region, employs 35 people. The Ossetia TV, as reported by the channel’s web site, was established in early 2014 and highlighted the important socio-political, cultural and sports events in the life of the region and outside. In January 2014 the web site was launched, and in March of the same year the Ossetia TV started broadcasting via cable TV channels. Near 30 percent of broadcasting time are the news programs. As reported during the presentation of the TV and Radio Company held to the members of the parliament of the North Ossetia in June of the present year, the TV Company’s top-management intended to produce programs in the Ossetian language. There were supposed educational programs for children, news and thematic programs for adults. It was reported during the presentation that for implementing that project and for broadcasting via satellite, the TV and Radio Company would require funds from the republican budget.
