New Soviet TV Network to Beam Viewers an Alternative : Television: Nika TV Co. will take on the Soviet State Committee for Television and Radio, providing alternative programming and offering ‘freedom of choice for both journalists and viewers.’

A new Soviet television company is being formed to provide an alternative to the programming on the state-run system in a major diversification of the country’s news and entertainment media.

Nikolai I. Lutsenko, the president of Nika TV Co., said the operating philosophy of the new independent network will be competition with the giant Soviet State Committee for Television and Radio for audience share--but more to air different ideas than for profits.

“The philosophy of Nika TV is simple--there must not be a monopoly,” Lutsenko said in an interview published by the newspaper Nedelya. “There must be freedom of choice for both journalists and viewers.”

Long kept under tight political and ideological controls, Soviet television has only begun to develop its freedom to report the controversial and has been reined in quickly when the leadership felt that it has gone too far.

While there are almost nightly clashes of opinion on talk shows, the chairman of the State Television and Radio Committee was abruptly retired after one guest, a radical member of Parliament, suggested the body of V. I. Lenin, the revered founder of the Soviet state, be moved from his mausoleum in Red Square and buried.

Lutsenko, seeking to reassure the apprehensive about the programs of an independent network, said that Nika’s challenge would not be political.

“We are all in the same boat, and Nika TV does not plan to rock it,” he said. “It won’t be out of control.

“We will differ in the information we provide--it will be much more comprehensive than what is available now--but we are not going to have a particular slant. We will be covering the problems of the economy, of culture and of ecology, and of ecology first of all.”

Founded by such groups as the Communist Youth League, Novosti Press Agency and the Union of Cinematographers, Nika is likely to be well within the country’s political mainstream, though probably more critical of the government than the state-run television system. Its management board will be comprised of representatives from the founding organizations and members of Parliament.

An independent television system has been under discussion since President Mikhail S. Gorbachev began his political and economic reforms. Intellectuals have wanted different, more open programming, and workers at the State Television and Radio Committee have sought greater creative and journalistic freedom.

Agreement has been reached after much debate on allowing a greater diversity of newspapers, magazines, literary journals and other published material, and this will become the basis of a new press law to be adopted this month or next by the Supreme Soviet, the country’s legislature.

But greater caution is apparent on the part of the Communist Party and the government over proposals, such as Nika’s, to establish independent radio and television operations.

“Many people have been thinking about the idea of alternative television,” Nedelya remarked, noting that Nika TV was founded a year ago, “but to go from words to deeds is not so easy on this.”

A former journalist at the State Television and Radio Committee, Lutsenko said that he became aware of how far Soviet television was behind world standards. Now a specialist in Asian politics and history at a prestigious research institute, he said he decided to return to broadcasting for the opportunity to create something new. “Perestroika opens up big opportunities for us,” he commented.

But Lutsenko does not see the embryonic network rivaling the state system soon. “We do not need a rivalry,” he said, stressing the need for cooperation. “To be a rival, we have first to grow.”

Lutsenko said that the Moscow-based company had recruited a substantial staff already, was establishing a network of affiliated stations around the country and was now starting to develop its own programs.

He said he had also purchased rights in Los Angeles recently to broadcast 5,000 of what he described as “the best American films” and was discussing cooperation with the Turner Broadcasting System and Cable Network News.

But he added that Nika’s first broadcasts are probably a year away because of the need to buy equipment, some of which must be imported.

“The first step, however, is the creation of our own films and programs, and we have taken that step,” Lutsenko said.

Negotiations are under way with Soviet Central Television for use of its transmitters for the initial broadcasts on its local or educational channels and then for the establishment of Nika’s own national channel.