AC Banned the Distribution of the M-Mulit Channel in the Republic of Moldova. President of the AC Will Notify the Legal Authorities regarding the False Declarations

The Audiovisual Council (AC) banned, during the meeting of July 22^nd, the broadcast of the M-Mulit television station, after finding that it does not have a valid broadcast license. According to the decision, which entered into force on the date of its adoption, media service distributors will have to exclude this channel from their retransmitted media service offers.

The decision was taken after examining a monitoring report of M-Mulit. AC also certified that the television broadcast local advertising, although it claims to be a foreign channel.

The monitoring of M-Mulit (“M-Мульт”), in terms of compliance with the provisions of the Audiovisual Media Services Code, was ordered in the public meeting of the Board of Directors on July 1^st. The results of the monitoring certified that, between July 1^st and 4^th, the television media service broadcast commercial communications for several stores, commercial banks and other economic agents.

AC stated that it notified the representative of M-Mulit in the Republic of Moldova about the fact that the television broadcast local advertising. Radio Star did not respond to the Council’s letter. Later, the position of the Premiere TV company was expressed by which it communicated that advertising within M-Mulit is included by Premiere TV based on collaboration contracts with several advertising agencies from the Republic of Moldova. At the same time, Premiere TV claims that it operates in accordance with the European Convention on cross-border television, to which the Kingdom of Spain and the Republic of Moldova are parties.

Subsequently, the AC tried to find out who is the legal entity that provides the technical signal of the television. Furthermore, the Council requested the Spanish Broadcasting Regulatory Authority to communicate whether the company Premiere TV Sl holds the permit issued by the Spanish Broadcasting Regulatory Authority for M-Mulit. The National Market and Competition Commission of Spain communicated the following: “This provider is not established in our country. Although the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation is responsible for managing the Register of Audiovisual Communication Service Providers, there is no information about this provider on the website of this register. Finally, I would like to inform you that the document attached to your letter is only the application submitted to the registry, but it is not a registration decision adopted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation”.

Thus, according to the CA, following the verification of the official page of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the company Premiere SL is not among the providers that hold a broadcast license issued by the competent authority in Spain and it is found that M-Mulit is not a television station foreigner.

The AC representatives also stated that, before the meeting, they received a notification from Radio Star SRL, by which they were informed that Premiere TV decided to suspend, from July 25^th, the broadcast of advertising addressed to the public in the Republic of Moldova. The company also announced that it has concluded a technical service contract with TV-Communicatii Grup, which organizes the transmission of the station’s signal until the broadcast analysis of the service distributors. AC members decided that they will return to the subject to determine which of the legal entities is guilty in this case. The president of the AC, Liliana Vițu, added that she will also report the use of forgery to the legal authorities.