4 October 2012
Two renowned international news channels, RT’s Rusiya Al-Yaum and Russia Today have joined the exclusive High Definition (HD) television bouquet offered by YahLive, the UAE-based direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television service provider.
The addition of Rusiya Al-Yaum and Russia Today channels, broadcasting in Arabic and English respectively, means that YahLive with over 40 HD channels is continuing to build the HD Hotspot for the Middle East and North Africa at 52.5 degrees East.
Available free-to-air (FTA), both Rusiya Al-Yaum and Russia Today broadcast 24/7 to more than 550 million people in over 100 countries around the world. The channels are based in Moscow with a network of bureaus all over the globe, including New York, London, Miami, Los Angeles, Paris, Dubai, Beirut, Baghdad, Cairo and Delhi, and another TV studio in Washington, DC. RT is the only Russian TV channel to be nominated twice for the International Emmy Award in the News category.
Russia Today is the flagship news channel of the RT network and covers major political, economic and cultural issues of our time, with supporting analysis and documentaries, for viewers wishing to question more…. Rusiya Al-Yaum, Russia’s first Arabic news channel, has a rolling 24-hour schedule of political, economic, cultural and sports stories supplemented with movies, documentaries and feature broadcasts.
Mohamed Youssif, YahLive’s CEO, said: “The addition of these two acclaimed channels further strengthens the position of YahLive as the hotspot for High Definition television in the region. We’re selecting channel partners based on the quality of their programming and the multi-cultural mix of our
audience across the region. For example, Russia Today is the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States.
“High Definition is the future of television and, because we have the capacity and engineering infrastructure, YahLive can offer the future today. The range of channels available on the platform also means that there is something for everyone,” added Mr. Youssif.
Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief, stated that: “We are delighted to extend our reach across the Middle East and North Africa with YahLive. RT’s viewers in the region are already dedicated and engaged, and we’re excited that now we can further enrich their viewing experience by delivering our best programming in HD, bringing the intensity of the frontline to their living rooms.”
YahLive has benefited from the shared knowledge and experience of the global satellite operator SES. Using SES’s extensive knowledge of HD TV, YahLive has developed a high-quality, robust and secure HD TV standard for its services in the region. SES operates 44 Direct-to-Home (DTH) platforms across the globe, carrying more than 5,200 TV channels, of which more than 1,300 are in HD.
YahLive is a joint venture company with Yahsat, the United Arab Emirates-based satellite communications company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, and the global satellite operator SES.
About YahLive
YahLive is a joint venture between Al Yah Satellite Communications Company, Yahsat, and SES, a global satellite operator. Launched in 2011, YahLive offers state of the art broadcasting, newsgathering, distribution and contribution feed capacities, bringing about a new era of high-definition (HD) and 3D TV services, from Y1A satellite positioned at 52.5 degrees East, covering the Middle East, Africa and West Asia.
YahLive offers broadcasters access to extensive satellite capacity to enable the latest innovations in the broadcast world, such as HD and interactive TV.
Through YahLive broadcasters can introduce new HD or interactive channels without worrying about capacity constraints, and also extend their audience reach to new regions with YahLive’s wide-reaching coverage.
About RT
RT is a global multilingual television news network, broadcasting around-the-clock from Moscow and Washington, DC to more than 100 countries on five continents in English, Arabic and Spanish. With a global reach of over 550 million people – or 25% of all paid cable networks’ subscribers – and 2.3 million hotel rooms worldwide, RT covers the major political, economic and cultural issues of the time, with supporting analysis, documentaries, sport news and cultural programs, for viewers wanting to question more.
The best news reports, stories and programmes can be found on RT’s YouTube channel, where the number of views has already exceeded 750 million, making RT the first TV news channel to break this record in YouTube’s history and also making the network the largest provider of news video footage on this world’s most popular video platform. According to official ratings by the UK’s Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, RT is now the third most popular TV news channel in Great Britain after BBC News and Sky News, and scores higher viewership than other foreign news channels measured by BARB, including Al Jazeera English, Fox News and Euronews. Nielsen has found RT’s audience in key U.S. cities to be bigger than that of other major international news channels including Euronews, France 24, Deutsche Welle, Al Jazeera English, NHK World and CCTV News. RT is the only Russian TV channel to be nominated twice for the International Emmy Award in the News category – in 2010 and 2012.
30 May 2012
RT’s New York-based audience increased nearly 3 times in 2011[1], while its Washington audience grew by more than 60 percent over the same period, according to a Nielsen survey.[2]
Nielsen carried out its first simultaneous survey of international news networks audience in America’s five major cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and San Francisco. According to the survey, in these cities RT leads other international broadcasters. For example, in Washington, DC, RT’s daily audience is 13 times larger than that of the German Deutsche Welle, nearly 8 times larger than that of the Chinese CCTV News, and almost 4 times larger than the respective audiences of Euronews and France 24. The number of RT viewers in New York is 9 times greater than the audience of the Japanese NHK World[3], and in Chicago RT crowd is 3 times larger than that of Qatar’s Al Jazeera English[2].
The survey shows that RT’s daily audience in New York has increased 2.65 times in 2011 alone, while its viewership in Washington, DC grew by 60.9 percent over the same period[1].
“The growth of our audience in the largest cities in the US, especially in New York and Washington, DC, is a clear proof that we have firmly established ourselves as an alternative to the American mainstream media. More and more residents of the US require access to new information and different perspective, which they find at RT,” – said RT Editor-in-Chief of Margarita Simonyan.
According to Nielsen, the average RT viewer based in one of the 5 surveyed American cities is a male aged between 35 and 49. While most hold an undergraduate degree, over 20 percent of RT viewers have a Master’s degree or a Ph.D. as well. In terms of occupation, most American RT viewers are either business owners, self-employed, or are employed in management roles.
More than 85 million residents of America’s key metropolitan areas receive RT around the clock via cable and satellite networks. RT expanded its audience in the United States dramatically in 2011 by being included in the packages of major cable networks in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia, as well as Dish Network, one of America’s largest pay-TV operators with nationwide coverage.
Nielsen carried out the survey in the fall of 2011, polling a total of over 10,000 residents in Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago.
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
1. Against the results of a similar survey carried out in Washington, DC, and New York in the fall 2010
2. Daily audience
3. Weekly audience
29 May 2012
RT’s Occupy W@ll Street Application is in the finals of the PromaxBDA Global Excellence Awards 2012 – the most prestigious award in television design and marketing.
The app is nominated in the Interactive Media: Online/Interactive Games/Immerging Platforms category. Within the category, RT is competing with such media giants as Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., Universal Networks International Germany and Warner Bros. Television Marketing- Digital Media.
The Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/occupyws) is based on the global Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and is available to everyone on Facebook. It was inspired by the global social and political phenomenon which began in the US in 2011. RT was one of the first channels to extensively cover the OWS movement, before it gained serious attention from the mainstream media.
Occupy W@ll Street is the first Facebook app by RT. The app’s enables visitors to leave their mark and comments on the global stage through a virtual map of the New York financial market. The game is designed so that any user can occupy his or her piece of real estate near Wall Street and downtown New York. App players can take a stand, leave comments, chat with others across the globe, share their Facebook profiles, invite friends, read news, and join the Occupy community from the comfort of their own homes.
RT’s Facebook page has already gained more than 500,000 subscribers – more than any other Russian media outlet, and ahead of many of its international competitors including CNBC, Sky News, Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle and Reuters.
“This is the first game inspired by the Occupy Wall Street Movement it serves as a platform for frustrated 99% out there longing for a voice and ability to impact the future. Facebook friends now have their voices heard!” said Margarita Simonyan, RT editor-in-chief, in a statement.
This is one of RT’s four overall PromaxBDA nominations, the others being for excellence in Promotion Marketing in the News/Information Program Campaign category for Noticias No Tienen Fronteras, where RT is competing against CNN and Al Jazeera, and two nominations in the Design competition.
RT, an international news network available in English, Arabic and Spanish to more than 530 million viewers worldwide, has garnered four overall nominations for the marketing and design of its programs in 2012. The network has won multiple PromaxBDA awards since 2008. PromaxBDA is recognized as the industry standard for excellence in television marketing, advertisement and design.
