The state of affairs in the broadcasting sector of Moldova is now unique for the international broadcasting because only in Moldova can they fully retransmit a foreign TV channel and introduce 2-3 news bulletins in the broadcast schedule of this channel, national news and a program, and this is considered a national TV channel, the deputy head of the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) Nicolae Damaschin said in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.

According to the deputy head of the BCC, the broadcasting sector of Moldova is dominated by several TV channels - Prime TV, Canal 2, Canal 3, Publika, RTR Moldova, TNT Bravo, TV7, N4, REN TV and NTV Moldova. “We see that four or five TV channels retransmitted from Russia have the biggest audience in the Republic of Moldova and thus the largest shares from adverting, which is over 50%,” stated Nicolae Damaschin.

He noted that the new amendments proposed to the Broadcasting Code propose modifying the percentage of own products. Thus, under the BCC’s decision, the broadcasters are obliged to broadcast 30% of own products. The amendments do not modify the percentage of 30% and the own content broadcast schedule of 8 hours a day, but suggest that six hours should be broadcast during prime time.

According to Nicolae Damaschin, the regional TV channels do not encounter problems in broadcasting own content. “They produce 30%-40% or even more own content. I speak about large TV channels that own 50% of the advertising market in Moldova. They are the first to be affected as they will have to invest in the production of own content. I referee here to Prime TV, NTV Moldova, RTR Moldova, REN TV,” he stated, adding that 80% of the content of the broadcasting market in Moldova comes from Russia and is the Russian language.