Divan.TV initiating check of lawfulness of operations by national television council
Kyiv, October 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Divan.TV interactive television service plans to ask the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting to check its operations in terms of lawfulness, the founder of the company, Andriy Kolodyuk, said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
The initiative is linked to the fact that earlier large media holdings of Ukraine – Media Group Ukraine, StarlightMedia and Group 1+1 accused Divan.TV of violating intellectual property rights. They wrote an open letter, which said that in particular, 1+1, 2+2, Ukraina, STB, ICTV and Novy Kanal TV channels do not have legally registered relations with Divan.TV, and the groups several times asked the leadership of the service to stop their broadcasting.
Kolodyuk said that his company has agreements signed with 131 television channels. In particular, a five-year agreement with ICTV was signed a year ago. Kolodyuk said that talks were held with Novy Kanal and STB, although the channels said that it is not obligatory to sign the agreements, referring to the law on television and radio broadcasting. According to the law, television channels that are part of a universal program service are to be broadcasted by all providers in a mandatory manner.
As for the relations with the Ukraina channel, Kolodyuk said that the signing of the agreement with the channel is at the final stage, and the service has not broadcast the television channel since October 9, 2012 to avoid conflicts.
Kolodyuk said that Divan.TV is not a pirate service and it tries to sign agreements with all copyright holders. He said that the company is ready to undergo checks by competent bodies.
"We initiate an address to the national council to check our operations," he said.
Kolodyuk said that the company does not have a program service provider license, as at present, the technology the company uses is not licensed in Ukraine. However, he added that Divan.TV submitted documents to the national council to obtain a license for its IPTV service.
ОТТ-provider launched on the Ukrainian market in June 2011.