So here I am, paying my provider for internet and television services (Akado, in my case). I’m paying on the understanding that TV Rain is included in the list of channels being carried, and then—boom—some jerk at Akado decides that watching TV Rain is somehow bad for me. It’s not as if TV Rain suddenly turned into a porn channel or a shopping channel. Or as if its programs had been declared illegal or extremist. No, it’s just that some jerk at Akado decided so. And it’s not just them. All the jerks at all the major cable networks, after broadcasting whatever they pleased for years, suddenly for some reason decided to start examining “the broadcasting policy of the TV channel TV Rain”. They write it quite plainly: A member of the Board of Directors of National Satellite Company CJSC, L.A. Mikhailov, reported the following: “At today’s regular meeting of the Board of Directors, several members raised the issue of the policy of the TV channel TV Rain and its impact on the operations of the operator Tricolor TV. It was decided that carrying the channel in the operator’s packages was inadvisable ... The members of the Board of Directors of National Satellite Company CJSC unanimously decided to remove the TV channel TV Rain from the Tricolor TV packages Optimum, Maximum HD, and Gold Card: All Inclusive due to the channel’s editorial policy being inconsistent with the principles used to form these packages” http://msk.tricolor.tv/presscenter/pressreleases/93 What business is it of theirs what a channel’s “editorial policy” is? Do they also review the editorial policy of erotic channels at board meetings?
http://msk.tricolor.tv/channelsold Like, “due to the obvious predominance of brunettes over redheads, the Tricolor TV board of directors finds it inadvisable to continue broadcasting the Night Club channel”? This is a paid service. People subscribe because their package includes TV Rain, Discovery, or Night Club. When they’re simply informed after the fact—one of the channels is being cut off without any serious or lawful reason—that is a violation of consumer rights. I know a huge number of people who signed up for cable solely to watch TV Rain. Not because they’re die-hard opposition supporters, but because the news on the other channels is completely unwatchable. My parents got cable just for cartoons for the grandkids and TV Rain. We won’t even get into the fact that the jerks at the cable networks are, of course, not genuinely outraged by anything; they are simply political prostitutes carrying out an obviously unlawful order to impose censorship. What we are talking about is the fact that these jerks are cheating their subscribers, who paid to have TV Rain included in their channel packages. In this connection, I want to officially announce that our consumer protection society (yes, there is one within the network of organizations of the Anti-Corruption Foundation) will file lawsuits in defense of an undefined group of consumers whose rights have been violated by the actions of cable television operators. We call on everyone who wishes to join this campaign to do so. In the near future, we will explain how this can be done and what complaints we will need from you. In addition, we will file a complaint with the antimonopoly service. What is happening now with these channel shutdowns is a textbook case of “concerted actions” that violate antitrust law. That’s that.
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