T launched its first, English-
language newscast in 2005
from a small Moscow studio,
aiming to tell the world
more about Russia. Today, as we
prepare to celebrate the 10-year
anniversary of that first broadcast,
RT stands as a truly global news
network, with seven international
channels broadcasting to more than
700m people in over 100 countries,
multimedia platforms in English,
Arabic, Spanish, Russian, German
and French, and a full-service video
news agency Ruptly. RT is the #1
TV news network on YouTube with
more than 2.5bn views. It is the
winner of the Monte Carlo TV
Festival for ‘Best 24-hour newscast’,
and a three-time International
Emmy nominee for news reporting.
It is the go-to source for alternative
perspective on the current affairs
and stories you won’t find in other
news media.
RT’s emergence as a powerful
global news voice is emblematic of
the significant changes experienced
by the international news media
landscape over the past decade.
Proliferation of digital tech-
nologies has removed geographical
barriers between news providers,
putting local outlets in competition
with international ones. It pitted
previously disparate platforms
against each other, forcing TV outlets
to contend with newspapers and
blogs for audience attention. Social
media, with its unmatched speed of
delivery and emphasis on viral,
unadulterated content, turned
ordinary citizens into citizen jour-
nalists, affecting not just how news
is gathered and consumed, but how
the global news agenda is set.
NEWVOICES
It is precisely these seismic
industry shifts that allowed new
voices like RT to challenge the
established players in the crowded
news marketplace.
In just 10 years RT has become the
world’s top non-Anglo-Saxon
international TV news channel in
terms of online audience. It now
leads such major international news
media organizations as Al Jazeera,
Deutsche Welle, Euronews, France
24 and Japan’s NHK in online
traffic, according to SimilarWeb.
YOUTUBE PARTNER
RT was one of the first Russian
media outlets to jump onboard as
soon as YouTube became available
in Russia in 2007. By mid-2013,
soon after a Pew study concluded
that more and more people are
turning to YouTube as a news
source, RT was distinguished by
YouTube itself as the platform’s
“largest ‘news’ partner in the
world.” Today RT maintains its
position as the #1 TV news network
on the site, with combined 2.5bn
views and nearly 3m subscribers.
But it is unlikely that techno-
logical aptitude alone would have
differentiatedRT among the thousands
of other news providers had RT not
offered something decidedly
different to its audience: a fresh
perspective on international head-
lines, access to voices rarely given a
platform in the mainstream outlets,
and news stories altogether over-
looked by the establishment media.
The shift from Russia-focused
programming towards RT’s
present-day role as the preeminent
alternative voice on international
issues began with our coverage of
the 2008 South Ossetian conflict. It
hit its stride in 2011, when for
weeks RT was the sole TV channel
on the scene of the Occupy Wall
Street protests, creating an
outpouring from an audience
hungry for updates on the
movement that was being treated
by the MSM as a non-story but
would go on to become a global
phenomenon. As the Arab Spring
began to sweep the Middle East, RT
acted as the voice of caution,
balancing the cheerleading that was
taking place across the pages and
screens of the western mainstream
media with analysis of emerging
risk factors – with good reason, as
we now see that many of the anti-
government rebels in Syria have
gone on to join Islamic State, and
Libya has been overwhelmed by
sectarian strife.
CRITICAL DISCOURSE
RT collaborated with iconoclasts
such as WikiLeaks co-founder
Julian Assange, the “world’s most
dangerous financial journalist” Max
Keiser and broadcasting legend
Larry King on the kind of program-
ming that engaged our audience
and provoked critical discourse.
So what’s next for RT? As we
move into our second decade on air
we are looking forward to
expanding into new markets and
new platforms, starting with
growing our German- and French-
language offerings. But first and
foremost we remain committed to
bringing our viewers the other side
of the story, to listening to our
audience and completing their
picture of international news, and
to challenging people around the
world to “question more”.
n
RT is
YouTube’s
largest
news
partner
“
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36
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ISSUE 2 2015
|
THE CHANNEL
As Russia’s RT celebrates
ten years on air, RT’s
Managing Editor Alexey
Nikolov looks at the
channel’s strong portfolio of
achievements and to new
horizons
RT
10 YEARS ONAIR
R
www.rt.com
