Russia modernizes media regs

New rules making certain media freedom being introduced in Russia on Thursday might help boost publish-economic crisis recovery for content-on-demand and nontraditional platforms in the pay TV market worth greater than $1 billion every year. They eliminate limited rules on registration for Internet together with other-new media platforms that provide TV services, abolish licenses for secondary relay broadcast services and tightly define the rights and duties of TV license holders. "The completely new rules tend to be transparent, dynamic, flexible and progressive," Dmitry Golovanov, a broadcasting lawyer and expert for your European Audiovisual Observatory told Variety on Tuesday. Tv producers have the legal right to use any media to supply their content -- terrestrial, cable, satellite, Internet -- without additional licenses or registration. The recommendations specify that only editorial boards possess the effect of broadcast content. Based on reforms attracted up a year ago by Russia's top court inside the first changes for the publish-Soviet media laws and regulations and rules introduced 2 decades ago, the modifications could make performing business for completely new-media and pay TV operators simpler and less pricey, Golovanov mentioned. Contact Variety Staff at news@variety.com