War in Ukraine - official statement from Kartina.TV

Message from the CEO of Kartina.TV regarding the broadcasting of Russian federal TV channels

RU: Гуманитарный проект для помощи жителям Украины

DE: Kartina.TV initiiert ein humanitäres Projekt

Dear customers of Kartina.TV, 

hour after hour over the past few days we have watched the shocking events taking place in a world that will never be the same again. This forces our company to react to these events and their consequences and to take certain steps. 

Kartina.TV is a private German company based and headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany. We are a law-abiding company operating in accordance with the laws of Germany and the countries to which we broadcast. In addition to Russian, our broadcasting network also includes Ukrainian, Armenian, Belarusian, Georgian and Israeli channels. 

Currently we have received requests from regulators in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to shut down RTVi, RBC, Belarus 24, RT, Russia 1 HD, Russia 24, TVC HD, TVCI channels. 

Demands were also received from the Ukrainian side to switch off all Russian channels on the territory of their country. All decisions of the media supervisory authorities of the aforementioned countries have been implemented. We cannot foresee to which degree the list of channels blocked from broadcasting will be extended. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to warn you in advance and relevant channels will be shut down as instructed by the relevant authorities. We hope that you will understand these changes occurring at the direction of third parties and continue to use the Kartina.TV service. 

During the last days we were noticing that the usage of Ukrainian channels by our customer base has increased. In this regard, from today (03/01/2022) we decided to move the Ukrainian channel group to position 2 in the general broadcast list of general channel groups. Should the demand for these stations continue to increase, we will promptly adjust the order of the stations in the broadcast schedule again. 

Possible interruptions in transmission

Unfortunately, we are currently receiving threats of DDoS attacks on our network. Attempts by third parties to hack into our broadcasting system have also been registered. As a professionally positioned company, we take every precaution to protect our system from these external attacks, but we also know that our options are not unlimited. 

Short-term transmission interruptions can also occur due to hostilities in Ukraine. We receive most signal sources for broadcasters via direct links from local broadcast studios, but due to recent events, we have to reckon that almost anything can happen. 

We will keep you informed about all significant changes as soon as possible and to the best of our ability. If you have any problems or questions, our technical support works around the clock as usual.