01 March 2004 12:19
Russian TV channel winds up weekly analytical show for financial reasons
[No dateline, as received] Moscow Region Channel 3's [weekly analytical] programme "Conclusions" is
being wound up, a former employee of the channel, Yelena Pogorelova, has told Russian Ekho Moskvy radio. She said:
"Mezhprombank has stopped or partially stopped its financing. That is why it was decided to discontinue the most
expensive programme, the one that required [crews'] trips outside Moscow. The last two or three editions of the
programme were made without any travelling so it was becoming increasingly obvious that the programme will be shut down.
And indeed on Saturday [28 February] the programme's last edition was broadcast." Pogorelova went on to add
that "the programme would be shown two more times in the form of digests of the best stories from past
editions".
She also said that there had been cuts in the channel's staff, "probably, for cost-cutting purposes",
she added. "Clearly, the channel's management will be replaced and the channel will focus not on political
programmes, but on economic ones, those that generate profit, like TV shopping, for example," Pogorelova said.
[In a later report, at 1048 gmt on 1 Mar 04, Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian, quoted the channel's
editor in chief and "Conclusions" presenter Petr Tolstoy as saying that after the presidential election the
programme would not no longer be needed. He went on to add that there could have been only one political motive for
closing the programme down. "Since that was the only weekly programme to openly support President Putin's
policy, the decision of the channel's management to wind it up after the presidential election is absolutely
logical. Together with "Conclusions", Putin will be supported by the majority of voters. Hence the president
will no longer need our support. However, I still hope that we shall resume this weekly project and that our viewers,
after taking a bit of break from making conclusions, will join us again next season," he said.]
[Ekho Moskvy news agency] |
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