Andrey Romanchenko

© Maxim Shemetov/TASS

STAVROPOL, March 3. /TASS/. Coverage of population with digital television broadcasting will be of 98.4% in Russia by the end of 2017.

The journalists said the head of the General Director of the FSUE “Russian television and broadcasting network” (RTRS) Andrew Romanchenko.

“General coverage of digital terrestrial broadcasting should be of 98.4% (the coverage exceeds 93%), the rest of the population should be covered by satellite broadcasts. We are confident that by the end of 2017, we will solve this problem”, – he said.

According to Romanchenko, in the framework of the Federal target program for the development of broadcasting in the country built the first digital multiplex. It provides nationwide broadcasting 10 digital channels, the construction should be completed by the end of this year . In the package RTRS-1 includes the First channel, Russia 1, NTV, “Petersburg – 5 channel”, Match TV, “Russia-Culture”, “Russia-24”, “Roundabout”, Public television of Russia, “TV Center”.

The second multiplex is now broadcasting only in cities with population over 50 thousand people. It allows you to get free access to the additional package is of 10 channels. “The full implementation of the second multiplex (all 5 thousand 28 multiplex) will work only in 2019,” – said the General Director of the RTRS.

As previously reported TASS, the transition to digital broadcasting is in accordance with the Federal target program “Development of broadcasting in the Russian Federation for 2009-2018 years”. The sole executor of the state program of the Russian television and broadcasting network. The introduction of the “numbers” will allow viewers in small towns to take up to twenty channels instead of four or five.