Resumen de Russian Federation: : Advertising law changes to affect pay TV
n 21 July 2014 President Putin of the Russian Federation signed into law several federal statutes that amend certain important regulations of TV advertising.
The Federal Statute �On amendments to Article 14 of the Federal Statute On Advertising� was passed by the State Duma on 4 July 2014. It prohibits commercials on encoded and/or pay television channels if these channels do not hold a terrestrial broadcasting licence or are not on the list of must-carry programmes (see IRIS 2013-6/31). The ban enters into force on 1 January 2015. The justification of the amendments was the need to stop unfair competition on the market, where the pay channels supposedly benefit from mixed funding schemes (subscription fees and commercials) while the open access channels do not have such a privilege.
