Russia's RT television network is going off the air in the Washington, D.C. area, one of the channel's most coveted markets in the United States.
The Kremlin-backed English language news channel will still be available via satellite, but two Washington-area stations that carry it are set to suspend operations at midnight Saturday, prompting cable operators to drop the channel.
MHz Networks, a Virginia-based distributor of international programming in the United States that broadcast RT and other foreign news channels on the two stations, said it was ending distribution in the wake of the station operator's decision to auction off their licenses.
As a result, Washington-area cable operators will drop them.
