BBC Monitoring Service,
22, January 2008

The head of the National Television and Radio Council has said that there are 44 national TV channels and radio stations operating in Azerbaijan, the Day.az website reported on 22 January.

Day.az quoted Nusiravan Maharramli as saying that there are 21 TV channels, 11 radio stations and 12 cable TV channels in Azerbaijan. He added that three foreign radio stations and one Turkish TV channel, TRT, are broadcast to Azerbaijan.

Maharramli made the remarks at a news conference covering the council's work since its launch in 2002. Turan new agency quoted Maharramli as saying that 45 people now work in the council's five departments.

The report added that the council started issuing licences to TV and radio companies in the summer of 2006. The council received 106,521 dollars from the sale of licences in 2007 and this sum was transferred to the state budget. Maharramli added that 1.6m dollars had been allocated for the council.

Speaking about the broadcast of programmes and films in Azeri, he said that 75 per cent of programmes should be broadcast in Azeri under existing legislation. He added that a deadline of six months has been set to allow for the development of intellectual Azeri-language game shows on TV.

APA news agency said on 22 January that the council's website - ntrc.gov.az. - was presented at the news conference. News about the council and its decisions are to be posted on the website.

Another APA report quoted Maharramli as saying that TV channels winning tenders would be given funds to shoot films in Azerbaijan.