The Kremlin-funded news channel is facing regulatory action in the UK, but an EU ban and decisions made by individual platform operators is already reducing the channel’s reach.
Here are the latest developments:
- An EU ban on RT and radio station Sputnik came into force today. The order also includes the UK version of RT. Satellite, cable and IPTV operators based within the EU have started to take action. Both Sky and Freesat take their RT feed from Astra 2G, which comes under the jurisdiction of Luxembourg through its owner SES.
- At just before 1pm on Wednesday, RT SD was pulled. Sky temporarily moved RT HD to channel 885.
- At 3:40pm, RT HD was removed from Astra 2G. Both Freesat and Sky have now lost RT.
- On Freeview, channel 234 became ‘unavailable’. But RT HD continued on channel 113 until 4:50pm.
- RT and its sister channels are being pulled from Eutelsat Hotbird.
- Cable operators throughout Europe that carried RT are pulling the channel. In the UK, Virgin Media didn’t carry RT.
- Roku has pulled RT from its streaming platform in Europe.
- Google has terminated RT’s YouTube feeds in Europe.
- Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has suspended RT’s Facebook presence in the EU, but not the UK, where RT UK continues to post.
- Ofcom is investigating 15 instances where it thinks RT may have breached UK broadcasting rules. All 15 instances took place within a fourteen hour period on Sunday. Repeated breaches of Ofcom’s broadcast code will result in RT’s Freeview and Cable/satellite licence being revoked.
- Streaming platform NewsPlayer+ has removed RT.
- Canadian cable companies have dropped RT from their networks.
Why can some platforms remove RT and not others?
Roku, Google and Meta have previously hosted live streams from RT. They operate outside of the traditional remit of broadcast regulators. They can make their own decisions about who qualifies to use their platforms. And they can often act faster than regulators in shutting down online streams while local regulators need to go through normal judicial processes.
In the UK, television platforms including Freeview and Sky are obligated to make slots on their Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) available on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. This is outlined in Ofcom’s EPG code.
It takes a third-party, such as Ofcom, the EU or companies in the distribution chain to trigger the change. This has now happened, with EU sanctions covering the satellites the UK relies on for satellite television.
Updated 18:47 02/03/2022.
This article has been amended to correct the Sky channel number RT HD moved to at just before 1pm.