10 July 2018
Move follows French media regulator warning to RT France
The Russian federal agency regulating the mass media and telecommunications, Roskomnadzor, warned French international TV news channel France 24 that it was in violation of a Russian media law for being “under the control of a foreign legal entity”, Russian news agency Tass reported on 29 June. The law limits foreign ownership of media companies in Russia to 20 per cent.
In a letter to the channel Roskomnadzor warned France 24 that it could be stripped of its licence.
A day earlier the French broadcast media regulator CSA had issued a warning to RT’s French-language outlet, RT France, over what it said was a misleading report about a suspected chemical attack in Syria broadcast earlier this year.
RT France said that “the misleading association between the translation and a specific video clip aired on 13 April was the result of a purely technical glitch, which has since been put right.”
The CSA didn’t fine RT France, but it has the authority to do so or to suspend its licence.
Clear retaliation
Roskomnadzor’s threat is seen as being a clear retaliation to the CSA warning, as confirmed by comments made by RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti. “Russia is a big country, unlike many, we can afford ourselves the luxury of tit-for-tat measures,” Simonyan was quoted saying.
27 October 2016
The total number of views on RT’s YouTube channels has exceeded four billion, making RT the leader among international TV news channels, including CNN and BBC.
In total, the aggregate number of views on RT’s channels is more than twice as many as that of CNN, three times as many as Euronews, and more than seven times as many as the BBC’s YouTube news channels combined.
VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CufWXj_o4o&feature=youtu.be
“The future of media is inextricably linked to the Internet. Once you fall behind in this field, it’s difficult to catch up. From the very beginning, RT has focused on developing its digital platforms, and this has been the key to our success,” noted RT Editor in Chief Margarita Simonyan.
“For many years now, RT has been the unrivalled leader on YouTube, the most popular video hosting platform in the world. Four billion views is a new milestone, and we are aiming to raise the bar even further,” said Kirill Karnovich-Valua, RT’s Head of Online Projects.
In 2007, RT became the first Russian TV channel to post video content on YouTube, as soon as the platform became available in Russia. In 2011, an RT clip was recognized as the most popular news video of the year on the platform. The following year, the Pew Research Center named RT the top news producer on YouTube. In 2013, RT became the first TV news channel in the world to hit one billion views on the portal.
In September 2016, RT took home seven Lovie Awards, the pan-European awards honoring online excellence. Last April, it received the People’s Voice Award at the prestigious Webby Awards, garnering user acclaim ahead of BBC News, ABC News, NBC Nightly News, and the New York Times.
(Source: RT press release)
10 March 2016
According to an Ipsos survey of TV news consumption conducted in 38 countries out of 100+ where RT broadcasts are available, 70 million people watch RT channels every week1. Half of that number – 35 million – watch RT daily.
RT enjoys its largest regional audience in Europe. More than 36 million people watch RT weekly in 10 European countries, placing it in the top 5 pan-regional news channels2. RT also makes the top-5 list of most watched international TV news channels in the US2, with a weekly audience of more than 8 million viewers.
11 million people watch RT weekly in the Middle East and Africa, where news consumers were polled in 16 countries. In India RT has weekly viewership of 7 million; only the English-speaking population, which accounts for just over 10% of the country’s total, was included in the study.
“For the tenth anniversary of RT’s broadcasting we conducted the most extensive study of our TV viewership in the network’s history, covering 38 countries across Europe, Asia, North and South America, the Middle East and Africa, through Ipsos, a leading firm in audience research,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor in chief. “35 million people watch us daily, and we are successfully competing with long-established channels worldwide. In 10 years we have truly succeeded in making our voice heard around the world.”
“Ipsos has decades of experience in international audience measurement, and we’ve worked with dozens of premiere broadcasters from around the world. We are happy that RT chose Ipsos to conduct their biggest audience survey yet,” – said Elie AOUN, CEO, Ipsos Connect MENAP.
Notes to Editors
1 The study was conducted in 38 countries, with a representative samples of the total population through telephone or online interviews, between August-November 2015, by Ipsos, a leading global audience research company. The study was carried out in Russia, Poland, Greece, Ireland, UK, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, India, New Zealand, Australia, Libya, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Lebanon, Tunisia, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria.
2 In these regions RT was measured alongside CNN, BBC World News, euronews, Sky News, France 24, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle TV, China’s CCTV and Japan’s NHK.
(Source: RT press release)
14 January 2016
Progressive political journalist Ed Schultz is joining RT America, beginning January 25, 2016, to host his new primetime news program, ‘NEWS WITH ED SHULTZ’ at 8pm EST weeknights. On his new show, Schultz will focus on exploring issues that most affect working Americans, particularly within the context of the upcoming US presidential election.
“Ed Schultz is one of the best-known and well-respected progressive commentators in America,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s Editor-in-Chief. “With Ed helming a show, we are continuing the tradition of collaborating with top international journalistic talent that engages our audience by providing in-depth coverage, analysis and commentary on important but underreported issues to millions of US viewers.”
WATCH PROMO: http://youtu.be/qj9BC4C53OY
“I am very excited to be joining RT,” said Ed Schultz. “The network is firmly established outside of US corporate media and is not afraid to give a platform to diverse voices, stories and perspectives to its viewers, even if it ruffles some mainstream feathers. I can’t think of a better fit than a news broadcaster that bullishly pursues issues that matter to hardworking Americans.”
Schultz’s broadcasting career spans more than two decades. Until recently, he hosted “The Ed Show” on MSNBC; the program was consistently the second-highest rated show on the channel. Schultz has won three Eric Sevareid Awards, managed a broadcast team that won two Marconi Radio Awards and a Peabody Award, and has been named one of the top 10 radio hosts in the country by Talkers Magazine for several years. He will work out of the RT America studios in Washington, DC.
Schultz is a graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he achieved All-American status and led the nation in passing as a football quarterback. (Source: RT press release)
