Russians Get to Watch Football Without Satellite Dish

Russian football fans will be able to watch their favorite sport on television without having to buy a satellite dish. NTV Plus and the Russian Premier Football League have come to an agreement in which the RTR-Sport channel will carry part of the games on regular TV for no charge.

RTR is being awarded a sublicense to show 3-4 games from each round, two of them will be broadcast live. This means NTV will lose the exclusivity, but officials feel that the strategy will pay off after attracting 300,000 new subscribers. NTV expects to reach that goal in the 2 ^nd year of its 4 year contract.

Originally NTV was going to air 210 of the 240 Premier League matches on a pay channel for 299 rubles a month. President Putin was told of the developments and stepped in to save the day for Russia football fans. He strongly criticized Russian football officials for the satellite TV arrangements and asked the first Deputy Prime Minister to look into the situation and see what could be worked out. After a meeting with the involved parties in the Black Sea resort of Anapa, a revised decision was announced preserving the free broadcasts of some of the league matches, including the championships.