“It’s temporary,” said A. Harutyunyan, mentioning that from September 2007, foreign soap operas will make way for other programs and soap operas produced in Armenia. As Armenians say, we run from the rain and find ourselves under the hail. Justifying the broadcasting of Armenian soap operas on Public Television, A. Harutyunyan mentioned that Russian TV channels have done the same thing. Besides that, “H1” will start broadcasting international programs which, according to the board president, are expensive. As for cultural programs, “H1” is preparing new programs to broadcast but not in the old style. “I have shut down some old cultural programs and I’m preparing to shut down the rest as well,” saidA. Harutyunyan.
Touching upon the propaganda of the upcoming elections, he recalled that during his term, “H1” has broadcasted information on one presidential one parliamentary election. During the first election, “H1” received “bad” ratings from international observers, while Public Radio got “good” ratings. As for the 2003 National Assembly elections, both public television and radio got very high ratings. “I think that we will still have high ratings during the 2007 parliamentary elections,” saidthe Public Television board president. Although Harutyunyan wants to get high ratings for spreading the word about the elections, however he has some contradicting opinions about the nominees having to do with the “Parliamentary Hour” program. Harutyunyan and European organization representatives believe that the government shouldn’t have a law demanding Public Television to show a certain program at a certain hour.
“I think that we should touch upon this issue after the elections,” mentioned the president of the Armenian Public Television board, calling that demand unconstitutional.
As for other Armenian TV channels, according to A. Harutyunyan, only 3 Armenian and one Russian television channel have a “real audience”. He mentioned the broadcast of films not translated to Armenian as a major flaw in this field and called it an “embarrassment”. “There is no such thing in any country,” said Harutyunyan and is certain that there should be a law, which will help follow up to see that the films are translated in Armenian. So, based on this, A. Harutyunyan wants to turn “H1” into the monopolist of Armenian television. Imagine the other low-budget television networks will be forced to translate films and that’s extremely expensive. The other Armenian TV channels (at least, the majority) will stop showing films and will lose their audience.
“They not only have to watch us, but also respect us,” said A. Harutyunyan, mentioning that besides taking into consideration the opinions of the Armenian viewers, “H1” sometimes broadcasts programs and films that don’t really have high ratings, but are important. For example, “8 and 1/2” films, which are the leading films worldwide. The Armenian Public Television board president has no complaints regarding the quality of the Armenian translations of the films. According to him, there is progress over the past year.
Harutyunyan also mentioned that “H1” will broadcast more political programs. A new talk-show called “EuroPolis” will be broadcasted in a month or two, however Harutyunyan said that the name of the program is subject to change. “We were waiting for Europe to build a similar city for Armenia after the earthquake, but it didn’t,” said A. Harutyunyan.