Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 15:23, 21 October 2011

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) No issues specified. Please specify issues, or remove this template. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by RIA Novosti, the 100% government controlled state-run Russian media outlet.

In addition to the flagship English-language broadcast, it also runs Arabic and Spanish language channels, and RT America, which is oriented to viewers in the United States. It broadcasts from its headquarters in Moscow and its studio in Washington, DC, and also has bureaus in Miami, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Delhi and Tel Aviv.

RT is the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States, after BBC News. By March 2010, its videos had garnered more than 83 million views on YouTube and has also set a TV News Channel record after exceeding a view count on YouTube of half a billion. It has 2,000 employees worldwide.

History

RT started broadcasting on December 10, 2005 with nearly 100 English-speaking journalists reporting for it worldwide. It was the first all-digital Russian TV network, and cost about $30 million in 2005 to set up and $60 million for its first year of operation, Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, says the station was born out of the desire to present an "unbiased portrait of Russia."

The network was launched by the autonomous non-profit organization ANO TV-Novosti in 2005, but much of the funding to this organization is injected from the Russian Federal Budget (2.4 billion rubles in 2007). This is equivalent to 82.56 million August 8, 2011 U.S. dollars.

In August 2007, RT had television's first ever live report from the North Pole, which lasted 5 minutes, 41 seconds. An RT crew participated in the Arktika 2007 Russian polar expedition, led by Artur Chilingarov on the Akademik Fyodorov icebreaker.

Network

RT consists of its main RT International English language channel, RT America, RT Arabic, Actualidad RT in Spanish, and RT Documentary.

Availability

Satellite and cable broadcasts

RT is transmitted on thirteen satellites, covering Europe, Asia, the Americas, southern Africa and Australia. Of these, eleven transmit the channel free to air, enabling it to be received without a subscription.

Viewers in Russia can receive the channel as a part of the NTV Plus basic package as well as Kosmos TV.

In the UK and Ireland, the channel is available on the Sky platform's channel 512, including in the Freesat from Sky package. It is also available in the UK 24 hours per day on Digital Terrestrial platform Freeview channel 85 and also on Freesat channel 206.

In Italy, the channel is available via SKY Italia on channel 531.

In New Zealand, the channel is available via Sky Network Television on channel 96.

In the United States, the channel is available to digital customers of Time-Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey on channel 135 (channel 196 in upstate New York), in Los Angeles and the desert cities on channel 236, and in San Diego and its North Counties on channel 222. Digital customers of Comcast can receive the channel in Chicago on channel 103, and in Washington, D.C. on channel 274. Digital subscribers to Buckeye CableSystem can receive the channel in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan on channel 266. The channel is also available in the Washington, D.C. area via Cox (channel 474), RCN (channel 33), and Verizon FIOS (channel 455). Portions of RT are additionally shown throughout the United States on MHz Worldview. Since MHZ Worldview is shown as a digital subchannel for some PBS stations (in addition to being available on DirecTV), this makes RT available on digital terrestrial television in the United States. MHz Networks, which owns MHZ Worldview, does a complete simulcast of RT on one of the digital subchannels of WNVC, one of the two stations it owns in Northern Virginia. Over the air, it is shown on WYBE 35.3 in Philadelphia.

In January 2010, RT became available in major cities in Western Canada through Shaw Cable. It also began appearing a couple months earlier in major cities throughout Eastern Canada from Rogers Cable.

Online

A live stream of the channel offering a choice of three resolutions for differing capacity connections is available via the RT website. The stream is also available in English and Arabic through Livestation which can also be viewed on televisions using the Roku player. Video clips of some of the programming is available on the website. A lesser amount is also available on YouTube.

Controversies and criticisms

The Moscow Times observes that, "various media figures and NGOs have criticized RT for its support of the Russian government, Soviet nostalgia, advancing conspiracy theories, offering a platform to commentators from the extreme-left and radical Islamism".

Achievements

In 2007, RT's share of monthly audience among NTV Plus viewers in Moscow exceeded those of CNN and Bloomberg.

In December 2007, RT programs were displayed in New York on America's main information video walls, NASDAQ and Reuters. On New Year's Eve, RT's New Year's program from Moscow and St. Petersburg was displayed live on the NASDAQ and Reuters screens for the thousands of people celebrating in Times Square.

In June 2007, RT was one of the first Russian TV channels to have its own channel on YouTube, the leading video hosting site on the Internet. In January 2008, the total number of views for RT videos on YouTube was over 3 million, and RT was sixth in YouTube's Most Viewed Partners rating, behind CBS, BBC World, Al Jazeera English, France 24 and Press TV.

In 2008, RT’s average monthly reach in Russia indicated a growth rate of 82% within just six months. Over the same period, the channel’s average daily reach grew by 46%. In the same year, the monthly audience among those who have access to or are aware of RT’s broadcasts on Time Warner Cable in NYC exceeded that of BBC America by 11%. The daily audience of RT exceeds that of Deutsche Welle tenfold, within the same network.

Professional awards

• January 2009 – Silver World Medal for Best News Documentary “A city of desolate mothers” from the New York Festivals
• November 2008 – Special Jury Award in the Best Creative Feature category for a Russian Glamour feature story at Media Excellence Awards in London
• September 2008 – Russia's most prestigious broadcasting award TEFI in Best News Anchor category
• November 2007 – RT's report on the anniversary of the Chernobyl catastrophe received a special prize from the international 2007 AIB Media Excellence Awards in the News Coverage category. Other nominees included major international broadcasters such as BBC, France 24, Deutsche Welle, CBS, Al Arabiya, and others. There was only one story by CBS News which rated higher than RT and it received the Grand Prix
• September 2007 – Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio awarded RT with the Prize for Professional Skillfulness
• June 2007 – The 11th "Save and Preserve" International Environmental Television Festival awarded its Grand Prix to RT's Meeting with Nature series. There were 284 entries competing in 10 categories, including a work by German TV channel Deutsche Welle
• September 2006 – The 10th "Golden Tambourine" International Festival for Television programs and films awarded RT's documentary People of the Bering Strait in the Ethnography and Travel category

Presenters

See also

• Voice of Russia
• Freedom of the press in Russia

References

1. Burton, C., Drake, A. Hitting the Headlines In Europe, A Country-By-Country Guide to Effective Media Relations. Kogan Page Ltd. 2004. p. 163.
2. Stanford Journal of International Law, Volume 38, 2002. p. 26.
3. Foreign News Channels Drawing U.S. Viewers - IPS ipsnews.net
4. Russia Today courts viewers with controversy — Russia Beyond The Headlines
6. The Conspiracy Channel — Utne Reader
7. ^ "Journalism mixes with spin on Russia Today: critics". CBC News. 10 March 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
8. "Russia Today tomorrow". Broadband TV News. 15 September 2005. Retrieved 26 July 2007.
9. ^ "Russia Today to be 24-hour, English TV station". CBC News. 7 June 2005. Retrieved 6 May 2008.
10. «Свобода слова» обходится все дороже Независимая, 5 September 2006
11. James Painter, The boom in counter-hegemonic news channels: a case study of Telesur, (undated), Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.
12. ШОСовая борьба «Интегрум», 30 October 2008
13. Corporate Profile RT
14. USA RT
15. About (Arabic) RT
16. Actualidad QUIÉNES SOMOS (Spanish) RT
17. RTД – your guide to the depths of Russia — RT
18. "Russia Today:Satellite". 17 September 2008.
19. "Free TV from Russia". 17 September 2008.
20. RT Editor's response to the allegation of promoting controversies was that they provide "an alternative to mainstream media".
21. ^ News & Events RT
22. "RT Corporate Profile". RT. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 12 June 2010.
23. AIB Media Excellence Awards 2007 Association for International Broadcasting, 8 October 2007
24. Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio Евразийская Академия Телевидения и Радио
25. News of the Okrug 11th "Save and Preserve" International Environmental Television Festival, 9 June 2007
26. "Golden Tambourine" International Festival for Television programmes and films Zolotoy Buben
27. "The Team Carson Scott". Sky News Business Channel. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
28. James Freemantle

External links

• RT website
• RT's channel on YouTube
• RT on Twitter
• RT on Facebook
• RT Live Flash stream

Template:International news channels

• Russian television networks
• 24-hour television news channels
• Television channels and stations established in 2005
• Foreign television channels broadcasting in the United Kingdom
• Multilingual news services
• English-language television stations
• Spanish-language television stations
• Orphan initialisms