PRESS: Russian satellite operator Tricolor TV to delist Discovery

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (PRIME) -- Russian pay satellite TV operator National Satellite Company, working under the Tricolor TV brand, will stop broadcasting Discovery channels, including TLC and Eurosport, from Thursday because the partners failed to agree how to share subscription fee incomes, business daily Kommersant reported Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Media Alliance, which manages Discovery on the local market, said the contract with the National Satellite Company expires on Wednesday and will not be prolonged.

The partners used to share revenue: the operator received subscription fees from clients and gave a part of it to Media Alliance.

The National Satellite Company put forward “unacceptable terms,” and the operator’s suggestion “places it in a preferred position regarding the rest of the market,” Media Alliance’s General Director Grigory Lavrov told the daily.

Viewers pay for content when they subscribe to digital television and choose an operator by a list of channels it offers, Lavrov said.

According to researcher iKS-Consulting, the National Satellite Company is the country’s biggest satellite operator with 11.8 million subscribers as of the end of 2015, or a third of the local pay TV market.

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