Media in captivity: how Russia destroyed radio and television in Crimea and Kherson

More than half a thousand Ukrainian frequencies, both radio and television, were lost due to Russian aggression. Broadcasters in the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula and Kherson region suffered the greatest losses.

This data was released by the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting in response to a request from Detector Media.

After the annexation of Crimea, most frequencies - 115 - were lost by the Public Broadcaster, which was previously a network of branches of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC). These frequencies were located in different settlements of the peninsula.

Another 17 frequencies belonged to the Black Sea TV and Radio Company, a regional broadcaster that was forced to stop broadcasting after the occupation, as its frequencies were occupied by Russian TV channels. However, the company's staff left Crimea and continued to work in the format of satellite broadcasting. In 2017, a test digital broadcast was organized for Crimea from Chongar, a border village on the border of Kherson region and the occupied peninsula.

Later, the Black Sea TV Channel team moved to Kyiv, and its broadcasting is aimed at internally displaced persons from Crimea who have lost the opportunity to watch Ukrainian television on the peninsula. In the fall of 2024, the TV channel found itself in a difficult financial situation: the owner stopped funding it, and projects with the Ministry of Reintegration ended. However, they managed to find new investors, and a new legal entity, Chornomorskaya TV and Radio Company LLC, was registered on the basis of the channel. Representatives of the channel assure that the investors are not politically connected.

Another Crimean broadcaster was Zhisa TV and Radio Company, which operated in Sevastopol, Simferopol and Yalta. In 2013, its logo was changed to the logo of the 1+1 TV channel.

Kherson region was occupied from March to November 2022, but the left-bank part of the region remains under Russian control to this day.

In Kherson, Ukrainian TV channels have resumed broadcasting in the nationwide Zeonbud multiplexes (MX-1, MX-2, MX-3), as well as in the state-owned MX-7 multiplex, which was launched in 2023. However, the regional multiplex has not yet been restored.

Among the local broadcasters, Kratu TV channel (legal entity - Real Media LLC) refused to renew its license, so its frequencies are currently free. However, the TV channel "VTV Plus", whose owners and managers are suspected of collaboration, continues to operate and has a valid license. The National Council intends to seek the revocation of this broadcaster's license through the courts.

In addition to Suspilne, frequencies on the Left Bank of Kherson region belonged to such TV channels as ICTV, Pryamyi, and Chornomorskaya TRK. The Last Bastion LLC and Kherson Plus Production LLC also received some frequencies, but they received them only a year before the full-scale invasion and did not have time to start broadcasting.

134 frequencies in the occupied territories belonged to Ukrainian radio stations. Of these, 45 belonged to the Public Broadcasting Company (Ukrainian Radio, Promin and Kultura). The rest are mainly commercial network broadcasters of large radio groups.

In Luhansk and Donetsk regions, Hromadske Radio lost four frequencies, and in Kherson region, Radio Krym. Realii stopped broadcasting in Kherson. Radio NV lost four frequencies, and the Crimean Tatar radio stations Meydan and Hayat lost their frequencies on the Left Bank of Kherson region.

As a result of the war, 329 media outlets ceased operations in Ukraine, leading to the emergence of so-called "news deserts" - areas with a lack of journalists and local publications. The situation is somewhat better in the south of Ukraine: Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions have formed a so-called "green belt" with a more stable information space.

Анна Бальчінос