Budgetary expenses for the Unified Telethon of Ukraine will increase by half a billion this year

The state-owned enterprise "Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine" continues to actively cooperate with TV channels that participate in the marathons "United News #UArazom" and "Freedom". In March of this year, new agreements for the production of content in the amount of 568 million hryvnias were signed during 2024. In general, as a result of expanding cooperation with "MPIU" and "Rada" TV channel, a total of 1.21 billion hryvnias have already been paid to content producers for marathons.

The largest contract for 2024, worth 190 million hryvnias, was concluded with "We - Ukraine" LLC. The price for one hour of content for "Unified news #UArazom" remains unchanged - 196,000 hryvnias. The company appeared in the "MPIU" telethon at the end of 2022, after the transfer of TV journalists from "Ukraine News Group" to the new channel "We - Ukraine". Information about the financing of the channel before receiving the first state contract remains unknown. The beneficiary of the new firm is Ihor Petrenko, who, according to the "Detector Media" publication, is the director of the domestic policy department of the International Center for Advanced Studies, and the financing of the channel was probably carried out through "Energoatom".

The rest of the orders were distributed among TV channels traditionally owned by oligarchs, just like last year.

Viktor Pinchuk's "SLM News" LLC received two orders this year for the amount of almost 190 million hryvnias, including 142 million hryvnias - for "Yedyny novony #UArazom" for 158 thousand hryvnias per hour and 48 million hryvnias - for "Freedom" for 90 thousand UAH per hour. Last year, prices from this company were 9% lower - 143,000 hryvnias and 82,000 hryvnias per hour, respectively.

Igor Kolomoisky's group received 187 million hryvnias. In particular, "Studio 1+1 TV and Radio Company" LLC received 139 million hryvnias for "Edyny novyny #UArazom" for 155 thousand hryvnias per hour, and the foreign enterprise "1+1 Production" - 48 million hryvnias for "Freedom" for 92 thousand hryvnias per hour. Last year, prices were 9% lower - 141 thousand hryvnias and 84 thousand hryvnias per hour, respectively.

Prozorro does not yet have an agreement with the Inter TV channel.

These TV channels are not the only participants in telethons. The Parliamentary TV channel Rada also participates in them. However, the state TV channel does not produce content independently, but orders it from Kinokit LLC, which has already received 228 million hryvnias during the invasion. The firm was previously associated with Kyryll Tymoshenko, the former deputy head of the Office of the President, who oversaw the telethon. Now the company belongs to Yulia Drozdova, a graduate of the Ukrainian Film School, founded by K. Tymoshenko's wife. According to "Bigus.Info", Drozdova was a legal adviser to Timur Mindich's firm, a former business partner of Volodymyr Zelenskyi. "Kinokit" is headed by television producer and director Maksym Onanko. The other day, the Ministry of Culture confirmed the status of "Kinokita" as a critically important organization in a special period. Earlier, Acting Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostislav Karandeev stated in an interview with "Interfax" that the agency has ensured the reservation of 50% of conscripts in each institution of culture and information sphere, which belongs to the strategic direction.

The total amount of payments to private channels for content for marathons amounted to UAH 1.21 billion.