MOSCOW, November 10 (Sputnik) — American TV channel CNN will stop broadcasting on cable television in Russia by the end of this year, the Russian Vedomosti newspaper reported on Monday, citing a letter issued by CNN to Russian telecom providers.
“The reason for suspending the broadcasting services were not mentioned in the letter. The Russian CNN division did not comment on this information,” the newspaper said.
The letter was issued by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner which owns CNN. Representatives from the Russian telecommunications providers, VimpelCom and Akado, confirmed they had been notified about this decision.
Founded in 1980, CNN opened its Russian division in 1983 and was the first to broadcast news on a 24-hour basis.
Since 2009, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications, Roskomnadzor, has been requiring local licenses for foreign broadcasters. CNN applied for the license but it was not issued to them.
Currently, CNN news reaches over 200 million households across 212 countries and territories.
