Russia's public television station will get 4.5 billion rubles ($146 million) in subsidies over the next three years after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev approved the framework for providing such funding, according to a document published on the government's website.
The station, which is designed to be neither state-run nor commercial, will receive 1.55 billion rubles ($50 million) from the federal budget in 2013 and 1.5 billion rubles in 2014 and 2015 each.
The funding is meant to reimburse the costs associated with the creation of the channel, broadcasting, production of programs, marketing of the channel on Russian and foreign markets, and maintaining its branches and representative offices, Vedomosti reported.
However, the sum is less than what some had hoped for.
In September, the station's general director Anatoly Lysenko said that 1.5 billion rubles is only 65 to 70 percent of what the station needs to function.
Lysenko said that he intends to look for other sources of funding, though he assured viewers that if there is any advertising on the channel, it will only be in the form of public service announcements.
The national public station is expected to start broadcasting in May 2013.
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