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Putin, sports minister to discuss revival of TV channel Sport

SOCHI, February 21, 3:19 /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko told Itar-Tass that he will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin revival of TV channel Sport.

“I am thinking how to preserve interest to sports. Particularly through mass media. All TV channels are broadcasting sport during the Olympics. If you ask how they cover sport in daily life, I will reply that they do not do it at all,” he said. “Half of TV channels lack sport editor’s offices. And I am afraid that nothing will change after this Olympics. The fact that TV channel Rossiya-2 will have only programme “High Performance Sport”, but action films and ultimate fights will prevail, bothers me a little,” he noted.

One of questions upon results of the Winter Olympics that Mutko is going to discuss with the president and the government will be possible allocation of one billion roubles for creation of a true sport TV channel. “This TV channel should have money to buy its content on, including telecasts of short track, ski jumping and other kinds of sport,” he noted. “This TV channel will be free of charge and generally accessible,” he added.

The minister noted that the TV channel should be named “Sport” and should be broadcast on channel Rossiya-2 as it was in the past. “Existence of Rossiya-2 as a generally political channel makes no sense for me,” he added.