Russia Asks Netflix To Become A Government TV Streaming Service

Illustration-Thibault Penin / Unsplash

JAKARTA - Netflix will be different in Russia, because the country's government wants the company to be a TV streaming service.

Usually Netflix is known to be a streaming platform for television shows, films and documentaries, but now Netflix has to provide at least 20 state television channels in Russia, and broadcast their programming live.

The state supervisory authority for the Internet and telecommunications, Roskomnadzor recently added Netflix to its list of audiovisual services. Created in late 2020, this rule also affects all streaming services that have more than 100,000 daily users.

To enter the list of audiovisual services, the provider was forced by Roskomnadzor to comply with Russian law and establish a subsidiary based in Russia.

In addition, streaming providers must also create at least 20 state television channels that can be accessed through their platforms. The terms will take effect from March 2022, and this is what Netflix will do if the company agrees to it.

Launching WinFuture, Saturday, January 1, among the channels that Netflix must bring are Channel One, the entertainment network NTV and a Russian Orthodox Church channel called Spas (which means "Saved").

The US-based company must also comply with provisions banning the promotion of extremist content, which critics say has largely been used to make communication difficult for the opposition.

For your information, the Russian government has tightened its requirements for foreign Internet companies in recent months.

For example, ahead of parliamentary elections in September 2021, both Google and Apple were forced to remove all content related to now-arrested Kremlin critic Alexej Navalny.

At that time, the authorities also threatened to investigate the Russian employees of the two US companies if they did not comply. Last week, the government imposed a record fine of $125 million for failing to comply with requests to remove content deemed illegal by the government.