Page 49 - The Channel Issue 2 2010

Bell TV, Rogers Cable, Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct in December 2009, we added over 18m potential viewers. RT has also expanded in Asia, joining Airtel Digital TV (India), DD Direct plus (India), SingTel (Singapore), and StarHub (Singapore), which amounts to 100m viewers in India and 2.6m in Singapore.

We put a great deal of emphasis on increasing the number of hotels where RT can be viewed. We achieved a real break-through in this area - in one year we multiplied the number of hotels by 23. In the USA our channel can be viewed in major hotel chains, such as Marriott, Crowne Plaza, Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton and many other four and five star hotels.

We have also increased our programme offering in major US cities – RT is now available not only in Washington, DC, and New York, but also in Los Angeles and San Diego. In January we opened our own studio complex in Washington, DC. This comprises two separate studios and was built in four months - a record time for such a large-scale project. We broadcast from this studio six hours every day - in prime time, from 4 pm till 10 pm ET.

As you know, we were the first Russian TV station to launch its own virtual channel on YouTube and in the last six months we have achieved a real breakthrough on YouTube. Increasingly, people go online for information, not just entertainment content. And we want to provide this content to the Internet audience.

Right now the total number of views on the RT YouTube page is over 130m, and the numbers are growing rapidly day by day. In the last six months our channel has been the most viewed international news channel on YouTube, several times. This of course is very useful indirect feedback on how popular RT is with viewers in general. It also shows that viewers are looking beyond mainstream news and looking for other, alternative

Of course, we pay a lot of attention to mobile platforms to make RT content more availiable to viewers. We already have a free RT application for the iPhone so users can watch us. We are currently working on applications for other major mobile platforms which should be available soon.

The landscape of Russian TV is developing rapidly. More and more channels are moving forward with new technology. For example, four years ago there was no news channel broadcasting 24/7 in Russian. Today there is Vesty24 – they have an online presence, mobile broadcasting for iPhone and make use of all the other

technologies modern channels use.

This year we are marking some significant dates. In May we celebrated the third anniversary of the launch of RT's Arabic channel Rusiya Al-Yaum, and at the end of 2010 we will celebrate five years of RT English. When we review our progress and look at our growth so far, I feel that's quite an achievement. In a very short period of time these channels have found their viewers and their place in international broadcasting networks. Our plans for the future? To make RT content more available to viewers. And first of all, to expand distribution, especially in Latin America and in the US. Since July we've been broadcasting 24\7 on FreeView in the UK, so we are very happy with our presence there – it makes us available to almost 90% of households. And of course we are working on making all three of our channels available on any mobile phone that people use to get video content on.