Some have only a tiny informational output. There is no legal barrier to the creation of a private network with a common national news service, but existing stations are too small and the advertising market too undeveloped for this to be a realistic short-term prospect. The national radio is also state-owned and tied to the government. It broadcasts on three channels. A few private radio stations also operate.
Audience figures for radio and television are uncertain.
Belarussian national television has to compete on comparatively small resources with the Russian channels and their bigger resources and much more diversified and popular programming. This is the same problem which the French-language national public service broadcaster in southern Belgium faces in its competition with the French channels. When asked which channel they prefer, Belarussians were 78.8 percent against and 31.8 percent in favour of Belarussian television. These figures don t tell us anything about viewing habits. State television itself claims that 70 percent of the population watches some of its news programming every day, but this figure seems rather high considering the competition from Russian channels.