National Council gives multiplex in the capital to Odesa channel

The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has selected Odesa-based First City Channel as the winner of the tender for Kyiv multiplex. It outperformed its competitors by offering round-the-clock broadcasting with urban content.

This was reported by the press service of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting.

The National Council has determined the winner of the tender for a place in the Kyiv multiplex of Express-Inform (43 TV and radio stations). It was First City Channel from Odesa. The decision was made on September 11.

According to the terms of the tender, the channel should broadcast around the clock without retransmitting other channels. Three companies took part in the selection: NBM TV and Radio Company LLC, Karavan TV LLC, and First City Channel.

The editor-in-chief of the First City Channel, Maria Tarasova, said that they plan to create a separate Kyiv channel with urban content. According to her, the channel did not stop broadcasting, it employs less than a hundred people, and development in the capital opens up new opportunities for the advertising market. Journalists who live in Kyiv should work on the new project.

Most members of the National Council supported this company.

According to Detector Media, NBM was among the other applicants. Its head Volodymyr Mzhelsky emphasized that the team was ready to show viewers more, including through materials about the military. The channel plans to restore the studio after the shelling and expand its broadcasting topics, and it has enough money to launch. The staff includes about 50 people.

Another participant in the competition was Karavan TV LLC (Karavan TV TV stores). The head of the company, Oleh Savenko, said he wanted to return to the Kyiv airwaves and was ready to advertise other players in the TV market.

During the voting, only Deputy Chairman of the National Council Oleg Chernysh publicly explained his position. He acknowledged that TV shops are stable payers for airtime, but gave preference to broadcasters with general content.

In July, Intent signed an open letter published on the website of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calling for the inclusion of media sector recovery in the program of the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) in Rome. The authors emphasized that freedom of speech, media resilience and infrastructure restoration should be key elements of reconstruction.

Анна Бальчінос