The Bas TV channel from Basarabeasca ceases its activity after requesting to withdraw its broadcasting license. This request was unanimously accepted by the Broadcasting Council (BC) members at the meeting held on June 7. The newsroom will keep producing online content.
LV-TOPAL, the company which owns the TV channel that used to broadcast on the market for 26 years, filed the request to the BC on May 23, citing the impossibility to continue its activity due to financial and technical issues as the reason for cessation.
“When the analog TV signal was stopped, we couldn’t broadcast on the air, so we were using the cable network for broadcasting. In this format, the TV channel started registering losses; we had fewer subscribers and faced unfair competition. For these reasons, we decided to cease cable broadcasting. The dilemma was where Bas TV was supposed to broadcast. We either had to give up our license or to shift to another level and to become a regional channel. As a local TV channel, we were still producing two hours of our own content, we had little advertising, but we were trying to get some funding, including grants. Therefore, from the very start, we decided to demand suspending the broadcasting license for three months at the most, from March to May. Meanwhile, we hoped to find a solution, to assess the possibilities, but we realized we would be unable to maintain a regional TV channel, it would be too difficult for us to produce more content with our current newsroom staff, and increasing the staff was impossible,” Ludmila Topal, the channel’s director, explained to Media Azi.
She also specifies that, recently, the BC controls have intensified, and the channel also had to pay some fines. The newsroom no longer intended to operate while breaching the law, yet it could not fully comply with the legal provisions.
According to her, the Bas TV newsroom will continue its activity online. “We regard it not as the end of our journalistic activity, but as a new stage where we will concentrate our resources and efforts to become a widely known professional online source. We will also maintain the Bas TV brand, because this is the name the public recognizes,” Ludmila Topal concludes.