Blank screen gloom for Muscovites

The tower is one of Russia's most famous landmarks

The fire in the Ostankino tower could deprive Muscovites of their favourite television programmes for weeks, as Russia's main broadcasters struggle to get back on air.

The blaze in the tower, which transmits television signals to about 10 million Muscovites and residents of many areas outside the city, blanked out most screens.

For us (television) is a way into some sort of oblivion, a means to forget about all the disasters that hit Russia and weigh so heavily on people

Moscow pensioner

In the rest of the country, however, Russians were still able to watch the main channels' satellite broadcasts.

Moscow was left with just two small local channels - TNT and Stolitsa.

Glum TV fans

The loss of television is a big blow for many Muscovites, who rely on it to escape from dull daily routines.

One 77-year-old pensioner quoted by Reuters news agency said it would be especially hard for the elderly.

Many of the elderly are big television fans

"For us, it is a way into some sort of oblivion, a means to forget about all the disasters that hit Russia and weigh so heavily on people," she said.

"I feel something is missing in my life."

Television has enjoyed a boom in capitalist Russia, with soap operas, imported thrillers and game shows proving very popular.

A Moscow psychologist said that "many people, especially pensioners, live from one soap opera to another... and now it has been taken away from them".

The loss of television would create "a deep feeling of frustration," he said.

A 40-year-old street trader called Valentina said "nothing can replace television".

"Whenever I am free, I watch it. I don't know how else to kill time."

Helping hand

The popular private channel NTV offered space to other broadcasters on its NTV Plus satellite after the blaze knocked them off the air in the capital. The state channels RTR and ORT took up the offer.

ORT has been helped out by its rival NTV

Aleksey Malinin, deputy director-general of NTV, said he expected terrestrial broadcasts to resume in Moscow within two or three weeks.

"We won't cover the Moscow region, or all of Moscow. We'll lose some of our audience," he said.

NTV, owned by the Media-Most Group, has been critical of President Vladimir Putin, leading to conflicts with the Kremlin including fraud charges against Media-Most chief Vladimir Gusinsky. The charges were dropped last month for lack of evidence.

The Moscow broadcaster TV Centre said the tower would probably be a write-off, and broadcasters would have to work together to find a solution.

"I don't think any of them can do it by themselves," he said.

Soviet symbol

Russia's main broadcasters are now looking for a suitable tall building in Moscow from which to resume transmissions, if only on a temporary basis.

The Ostankino tower, completed in 1967, was hailed at the time as a feat of Soviet engineering.

It was originally built to relay the signals of five television and three radio channels.

But the BBC's Stephen Dalziel in Moscow says firefighters discovered a mass of cabling in the tower, making their task all the more difficult.

After Russia's airwaves were opened up to the private sector, many more operators rented space on the Ostankino tower.