Text of report in English by Russian newspaper Kommersant website on 1 October
The Russian [State] Television and Radio Broadcasting [Company - RTR] network monopoly has officially confirmed that it intends to acquire the Transdniestrian Radio and Television Centre [in the breakaway Moldovan region of Dniester], which was once the base for Soviet radio broadcasting in the entire Western hemisphere. An RTR representative said that the broadcast centre will permit it to enter the Moldovan, Dniester and regional Ukrainian markets.
In the 1990s, the broadcast centre was one of the most powerful in Europe. Its broadcasts were heard in all European countries, the United States, Canada and Cuba. It was also used to jam such stations as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. Ice build-up on its equipment in 2000 caused it to lose about 20 per cent of its broadcast capacity.
The tender for the centre will take place on 2 October. The Ministry of Information and Telecommunications of the unrecognized republic of Dniester has set a price of 3.31m dollars on it. The winner of the tender is will be obliged to invest 1.02m dollars in the centre by 2011 and increase the centre’s annual receipts to 5.8m dollars.
The other competitor in the tender will be the Russian-Tajik joint venture Eurasian Teleradiocom, which has no experience broadcasting in Russia, Moldova or Dniester.
Analysts note that the acquisition of the broadcast centre will pay back its investment through government contracts. The centre is expected to be used to rebroadcast Russian television programming. The tender for the broadcaster was called illegal by [the Moldovan authorities in] Chisinau.
(Source: Kommersant website, Moscow, in English 1 Oct 07 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
(Source: Map www.russiablog.org/TransDniesterMap.gif
