The 3S.tv online channel owned by the journalist and the Shuster Life political talk show host Savik Shuster will be shut down in the beginning of 2017, according to a message published on 3S.tv’s official website on Dec.1.
“For more than a year Shuster and 3S.tv team was working hard to prove that non-oligarchic television can exist in Ukraine. But we ran out of money,” 3S.tv wrote.
The situation in Ukraine’s TV media market is absurd, said 3S.tv press service. All the television channels are unprofitable and survive only thanks to the financial support of the oligarchs-owners. In such conditions, the 3S.tv channel’s attempt to work as an independent media failed as instead of profit and support it has got criminal cases, penalty charges, and Shuster even was stripped off his work permit in Ukraine.
“We still have to fight in courts, and since we will have no channel it would be very hard for us to tell the society about our fight. This year was very hard for us, but we had more than 20,000 supporters, our viewers from all over the world, who joined the 3S.tv club,” Pavlo Elizarov, the 3S.tv managing partner told the Kyiv Post on Dec.1
According to 3S.tv press service citizens of 50 countries have joined the 3S.tv club. Shuster Life has its viewers in Ukraine, Russia, U.S, Germany, Canada, Israel and others.
In an October interview with the Kyiv Post Shuster said that he had than $1 million in the bank, a payroll of 170 people and $250,000 expenses per month for his internet 3S.tv station.
The 3S.tv has sold more than 20,000 club memberships, starting at Hr 100 (less than $ 4). But the viewers covered only 7 percent of the budget for Savik Shuster Studio.
Elizarov wrote on Facebook on Nov.26 that the channel had 20,200 members of the club, but it needs about four million subscribers to work for at least three more years.
Shuster claimed he is not going to ask oligarchs for financial support as he “is working for people”.
However, 3S.tv did try to find potential investors among the business representatives in Ukraine, but only one actually became an investor.
The 3S.tv press service refused to reveal any names but said if some other potential investors respond for channel’s cry for help, Shuster Studio may escape such a sad finale.
But the chances for that supposedly are low, as many people from 3S.tv staff have already filed for dismissal, according to 3S.tv. Moreover, 3S.tv has to collect at least $ 10 million to continue the work.
The 3S.tv club subscriptions brought average Hr 350,000 per month (some $13,000).
Savik Shuster launched 3S.tv channel in September 2015 together with the TV producer Elizarov. The political talk show Shuster Live was the leading product on 3S.tv as it was the talking platform or Ukraine’s top officials and politicians.
In the pre-3S.tv era Shuster was hosting the same format of the political talk show on Ukraina TV channel, Inter TV channel, ICTV channel, 1+1 TV channel, National channel First. But his cooperation with oligarchic television channels did not last long because of the different kind of political pressure from their powerful owners.
Shuster claims that his journalistic work and critical position against the current government made him a personal enemy of Ukraine’s current President Petro Poroshenko.
Shuster’s allegations burst criticism among the experts, as his talk show has turned into a platform of political offenses and populism of politicians.
Shuster is confident that Poroshenko and oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky are using their influence on State Fiscal Service Head Roman Nasirov to fabricate cases against him.
In April the State Fiscal Service accused Shuster in individual tax evasion of more than Hr two million.
The same month the State Employment Service stripped Shuster of the work permit in Ukraine. However, this decision was canceled after a public outcry.
TV host denied all the accusations, calling them bogus, damaging for his own reputation and for the reputation of his show.
On Nov. 12 Pechersk District Court of Kyiv ordered a search in Shuster’s studio and house as a part of this tax evasion case investigation. Elizarov wrote on Facebook that such decision was made behind closed doors without the presence of Shuster’s lawyers and that it is a renewal of political pressure against the channel and Shuster himself.
Responding to a question, what Shuster and his team plan to do after the 3S.tv closure Elizarov said that Shuster Life is not going to be aired on any Ukrainian or foreign channels.
Journalists of 3S.tv are the members of civil organization “Chetverta Vlada” ( The Fourth Power) and together with Shuster they will continue to protect the human rights for freedom of speech in Ukraine.
