Rebel journalists who quit Russia's private NTV network after a hostile takeover on Saturday by a state-dominated gas company were broadcasting on a limited channel yesterday while planning a new independent station.
While former colleagues who agreed to work for their new masters Gazprom carried routine news bulletins that largely ignored the takeover, the rebels, including many star reporters, operated on another channel with less reach run by NTV's beleaguered founder, Mr Vladimir Gusinsky.
The broadcasts fell short of NTV's station's usual standards due to a lack of technical facilities and a full network of correspondents.
Yevgeny Kiselyov, NTV's ousted director and main anchorman, said in a scaled-down version of his analytical Itogi programme broadcast from a makeshift studio on Mr Gusinsky's TNT channel that negotiations were under way on a tie-up with TV6, owned by businessman and one-time Gusinsky arch-rival Mr Boris Berezovsky.
Mr Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider who fell out with President Vladimir Putin and now lives abroad, has offered to host the rebel team.
Mr Gusinsky and Mr Berezovsky belong to a small band of Russian "oligarchs" who built up huge fortunes in the post-Soviet era through their political connections. Both have fallen foul of the Kremlin since Mr Putin's election as president last year.
Gazprom's takeover of NTV, by far the most influential source of information outside the Kremlin's control, has raised concerns about the future of media freedoms under Mr Putin.
However the Kremlin has said it had no role in the affair, describing it as a purely commercial matter. Gazprom says it is merely seeking to recoup a debt owed it by Mr Gusinsky.