SOCAR Acquired Satellite Channel ATV-International

State oil company SOCAR has acquired satellite channel ATV International. The deal has not been announced. The selling is due to funding problems the structure, said at today's press conference, President ATV Vugar Garadaghli.

According to him, created in 2009, TV channel "did not act on the basis of advertising revenue, causing problems with the provision of modern technology."

In connection with this the TV station was put up for sale and acquired by SOCAR.

From now on ATV-International will work with the media community association SOCAR.

Vice-president of SOCAR Khalig Mammadov explained the company's interest in ATV need media support of social projects in the country and abroad.

According to him, the media community association SOCAR will not have any obligations to the oil company.

10% of the telecasting will go in Azerbaijani and 90% - in foreign languages, including the countries of the region, he said.

According to Mammadov, the channel will be equipped with the most advanced technology and along with the business interests of SOCAR, "will advocate public policy of Azerbaijan."

He also argued that the ATV-International is a non-profit organization working on a grant basis.

The channel will be led by the journalist Azer Khalilov, who in the early 1990s worked in the Azerbaijani press, collaborated with a number of foreign media, and later headed the Azerbaijani service of BBC.

Khalilov said that the channel will now be called CBC (Caspian Broadcasting Company). Currently, television broadcasts in Farsi, Russian, English and Armenian. -06D-