Government pushes for cable TV instead of satellite dishes
The bottom line of this situation is that the channels picked by your satellite dish cannot be controlled, while the programming on cable networks is filtered by the information ministry. It is the ministry to decide what cable and airwave TV viewers are allowed to watch. Besides, this is a lucrative business opportunity, which cannot be run through satellites.
“There is no official directive yet to remove satellite dishes. But, it is most likely to appear soon. Therefore, the dishes will be dismantled in the process of repairs,” says Viktar Halinouski, the head of urban planning and sanitary at Brest City Hall.
He told the European Radio for Belarus that the choice offered to the public is between the cable television and collective airwave antennas.
“There are two cable operators in the city, who have already developed their collective cable networks. They already cover several districts in the city. They place 6-8 dishes angled at different directions on the roof of a house. The signal is then fed to the central station, where it is amplified and fed back through the cable to subscribers”, Halinouski explains.
It means that the residents of Brest will have two packages of channels: a social package which includes six Belarusian programs and a commercial channel which needs to be approved by the Information Ministry and Communication Ministry.
The programming at the channels now being offered to the public will definitely differ from the one from satellite dishes. Brest City Hall admits that.
Halinouski: “Some programs might not be approved by the Information Ministry”.
Suspicion arises whether the ban on satellite dishes is caused by the desire of the Belarusian authorities to block certain satellite channels like Belsat which is soon expected to start broadcasting from Poland into Belarus. Brest is a regional center in the west of the country, located close to the border with Poland. Polish TV and radios are traditionally popular there. The Brest authorities don’t deny this.
“Polish stations have a stable coverage of Brest. In principle, one can watch the Polish television using just a nail. If windows look to the west and there are no obstacles, it is even possible to watch the Polish TV using an in-door antenna. In the collective cable networks, this Polish channel will of course be not part of the package, because the Polish side has to sign an agreement with Belarus for the dissemination of their programming on the territory of this country”, Halinouski said.
The Information Ministry of Belarus told the European Radio for Belarus that it had no intention or ability to control the satellite television. But the cable and airwave television is indeed under the government’s control.
“There are 129 cable operators working in Belarus. We do approve their programming indeed. But they keep updating their list of programs. We have several applications to use up to 70 cable channels. As for the satellite dishes, we have received no official orders or regulations. You have the right to watch whatever you want, including the satellite television. The operation of cable operators requires approval, because we are talking about business in this case. We control the content which is currently offered on cables”, the Information Ministry said.
Officials at Brest City Hall say that some people are very discontented with the new measure, because they want to watch those channels which have no approval from the Information Ministry.
Halinouski: “We have some very discontented people who want to watch for instance a Russian program or a Polish program which we do not have, because they are not approved by the Information Ministry”.
The city of Lida was the first place where officials started removing satellite dishes. The rumors then were that it was a pilot project which could be later copied in the rest of the country. Perhaps, the government is testing again at the example of Brest whether people will agree to watch what the authorities wants them to watch instead of what the public desires.
