vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #167 / Business / Reading article...

Is there enough room in the dynamic Vladivostok television market for yet another entrant? According to Igor Kozlov of Vladivostok-based communications company Inkkomp Limited, there’s plenty of room.

In conjunction with the American television company Story First Communications, Kozlov’s six-year-old communications venture will enter the Vladivostok market June 1, broadcasting a range of Russian and Western television programming. The new channel brings the number of channels in Vladivostok to eight, while increasing the number of television broadcast companies in the city, both local and national, to at least 10.

“Of course, a large variety of channels to choose from is good, from the viewer’s perspective,” says Kozlov, whose company has until now primarily operated a local system of pagers and mobile communications. “Each company can express its own views and shows its own programs.”

In 1996, Inkomp Ltd. and Story First Communications’ Moscow-based holding company, CTC, established a 50-50 joint venture for the creation of a Vladivostok television station. After nearly 18 months of wrangling with the federal licensing agencies, Goskomsvyaz and the Federal Commission on TV and Radio Broadcasting, the company finally received licenses in February and March of this year, allowing the project to go forward.

Kozlov declined to comment on the overall size of the joint venture, but he did note that SFC is investing approximately $1 million over the next few months in a new studio for the station. Eventually, the studio, with SFC-trained technicians and station managers, will produce its own material, including news, entertainment, and educational programs. Prior to this, however, the station will broadcast a mix of Russian programs, old and new, along with Western programs in translation, beamed in “real time” via satellite from Moscow.

Commercial stations tend to target audiences of children and young adults aged 18 to 24, says Joe Lewin, president of the Russian broadcasting division of Story First Communications.

As a result of this audience’s potential buying power and quickly evolving consumer tastes, large name-brand companies advertise heavily in radio and television, making the broadcast media industry one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy.

However, barriers such as high equipment costs discourage many investors who are looking for quick profits.

“TV, no matter where it is, is not a short-term investment,” says Korzlov. “We don’t expect huge profits any time in the near future.”

Despite all this, both Kozlov and Lewin are confident that the new Vladivostok station will be just as successful as the nine other television and eight other radio stations across the country with which Story First is in joint ventures.

“Right now, the television market, both in Vladivostok and Russia-wide, is very competitive, and there are lots of opportunities for growth,” says Lewin. “As the economy grows in each region, so will the possibilities for broadcasters.”

Ultimately, Kozlov and his American partners, plan to expand the station’s broadcasting range beyond Vladivostok to all of Primorye and, within the next two years, to the whole Russian Far East.