A line running from Russia – Newspaper Kommersant No. 212 (7413) dated 11/16/2022

Russian software developers for TV companies, Carrot and BRAM Technologies, expect to receive 829 million rubles. from the budget for import substitution of foreign software, the owners of which stopped updating in Russia. The Ministry of Digital Transformation stated that the projects were supported by the largest broadcasters. Foreign software is used on 90% of channels, and companies do not risk using pirated copies. But, market participants specify, Russian programs have yet to prove their effectiveness.

Kommersant got acquainted with two passports of projects for the development of Russian software for TV channels, which should replace foreign analogues. The documents were sent to the Industrial Competence Center (ICC) “Teleradio Broadcasting” supervised by the Ministry of Digital Development. The anchor customer of the products, as follows from the documents, is NTV (part of Gazprom Media). She expects that developments can be sold to other federal channels, parts of regional ones, as well as abroad (to the CIS countries, BRICS, Latin America, Africa).

Foreign software vendors through whose systems TV titles, captions, tickers and virtual studios (Vizrt, Ross and Avid) are created on TV have stopped servicing and updating products in the Russian Federation, which leads to risks of “a drop in the visual quality of produced TV programs,” the documents say. . Russian Carrot Broadcast and BRAM Technologies are named as developers of analogues. They ask to allocate 349 million rubles. for the creation of the Russian system of graphic design of the air and 480 million rubles. on software for automation of broadcasting, planning and preparation of TV news. In both cases, the grant must cover 80% of the development costs. The companies expect to start implementing new solutions only in 2025.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation told Kommersant that the participants of the ICC, which includes all the largest broadcasters, supported the projects, “because the industry is in dire need of domestic professional software.” Carrot Broadcast and BRAM Technologies didn’t answer “Kommersant”.

Channel One is ready to consider purchasing Russian on-air graphics and broadcasting automation systems, “but only after the product appears and proves its effectiveness,” CEO Konstantin Ernst, who also heads the Broadcasting Information Center, explained to Kommersant. The National Media Group (Channel One, STS, REN TV) and VGTRK declined to comment, TV-3 and TNT did not answer Kommersant.

About 90% of TV channels use foreign software, in Moscow and St. Petersburg its share is higher than on regional TV, notes Anastasia Ushakova, technical director of the Studio-Service integrator. According to her, the number of applications for translation from foreign systems of preparing news to Russian has recently increased. However, in the Russian Federation there are few developers involved in this area, the expert clarifies: “Until recently, there was one Russian company for about ten foreign companies that sold their systems in the country.”

Television companies mainly buy either perpetual licenses for specialized software or software as part of hardware and software systems, explained Vladimir Shirokov, General Producer of TV and Radio Company Start. He added that companies almost never use pirated copies, as “it’s easy to figure it out.” If the hacked program stops working, the broadcast will stop, and its interruption for more than three minutes “is fraught with image losses and fines from advertisers, as well as cable, satellite and smart TV operators,” the expert emphasizes. According to Mr. Shirokov, the absence of software updates is unlikely to affect the quality of broadcasting, but without them, TV companies will not get access to functions that have not yet been launched, such as new codecs.

Yuri Litvinenko, Valeria Lebedeva