RT (Russia Today)

RT's Occupy Wall Street Coverage Brings Second Emmy Nomination

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:39:38 +0000

RT has been nominated for an International Emmy, the most prestigious award in television, in the News category.

RT was nominated for its coverage of Occupy Wall Street, a movement which started in New York City in 2011 and has since spurred a worldwide phenomenon. RT became one of the first TV networks to provide an in-depth coverage of the Occupy protests from their inception.

"Two years ago we became the first Russian TV channel to become an Emmy finalist in the News category. We are very happy and very proud to once again be the sole channel representing Russia in the competition for the biggest TV award in the world. We hope that second time will be the charm!" said RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

RT is the first Russian TV network with two career International Emmy nominations. In 2010, RT became the first Russian TV channel to be nominated in the News category for its coverage of Barack Obama's first official visit to Russia in the previous year.

Among RT's competitors vying for the Emmy statuette are such international TV news channels as Qatar's Al-Jazeera English, Japan's NHK and Brazil's TV Globo.

Launched in 2005, RT broadcasts around the clock from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC and is available in English, Arabic and Spanish to more than 550 million viewers in more than 100 countries around the globe. It is the first news channel in the world to pass 750 million views on YouTube. RT streams online at RT.com.

The International Emmy Awards are presented by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for excellence in television. The News & Documentary Emmy Awards will take place on October 1st in New York City.

RT Websites Attacked Amidst Julian Assange Coverage

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 08:34:34 +0000

Two of RT’s websites – RT in English (rt.com) and RT in Spanish (actualidad.rt.com) became subjects of mass DDos cyber-attacks last Friday.

Hacker group known as AntiLeaks claimed responsibility for the attacks. The same group attacked WikiLeaks – Julian Assange’s whistleblower site – last week.

The spread-out attacks began around 9am Moscow time. As a result, the decision was made to shut down the attacked IP address of the channel. Soon after, the functionality of the site rt.com has been partially restored, and actualidad.rt.com has been fully brought back online. However, the DDos attacks have resumed at 14:00 (2pm) Moscow time and the site became inaccessible to users.

The website traffic was so high, that the information stream reached 8-9 gigabits per second, which is comparable with DDos attacked suffered by WikiLeaks on August 12th of this year.

Hacker group AntiLeaks, which has spoken out against Assange’s WikiLeaks project, has claimed the responsibility for the attacks on RT’s sites via its Twitter account, @AntiLeaks.

Detailed information about DDos attack on RT can be found on RT’s Twitter feed @RT_com и @RT_Russian.

RT Leads Al Jazeera in UK Ratings

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:34:19 +0000

More than half a million UK residents tuned in to watch RT weekly, according to BARB. That is over four times greater than watched Fox News, more than double the number for Euronews, and significantly above Al Jazeera’s viewership.

BARB is the organization that provides official TV audience measurement in the UK. BARB collects overnight data on TV viewership of more than 250 channels that broadcast in the UK through the top-box technology which tracks the watching of specific programs in participating households. Its findings are publically accessible and are among the most credible statistics of this kind available in Britain.

RT’s recent BARB ratings support earlier findings by Kantar Media in a separate research study, which showed that in the UK RT boasts higher weekly viewing rating than other major international English-speaking TV news channels, including Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle, France 24, China’s CCTV News and Iran’s Press TV. According to the study, almost two and a half million viewers watch RT in the UK. Only for 2011 RT’s UK monthly audience has grown by 40%.

RT is a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, and is available to 530 million viewers worldwide. RT became the first TV news channel in the world to pass 700 million views on YouTube. In 2010, RT became the first ever Russian channel to garner a nomination for the prestigious Emmy International Award, in the News category. RT streams online at RT.com.

Julian Assange Draws Parallels Between Himself and Persecuted Malasian Opposition Leader in Last RT Show

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:05:40 +0000

Assange interviews Anwar Ibrahim, a politician and the most prominent leader of the Malaysian opposition who rose to the position of Deputy Prime Minister before falling from grace and leading the charge against the ruling elites.

With Anwar, Assange continues his tradition of interviewing formerly imprisoned activists and political leaders, and alludes to similarities in how he and Anwar faced politically motivated persecution disguised with more sinister criminal allegations. “As a rising internal rival to the former Prime Minister Mahathir, Anwar was imprisoned for 5 years after being smeared with sex allegations. As a result of a popular campaign in 2004, his conviction was overturned and he was released from prison. In 2008, he was again targeted for sex crimes allegations, he won the case earlier this year,” says Assange. “I want to know how has he survived and what does he see as the future of Asia and the West.”

In the interview Anwar talks about the possibility of a ‘Malaysian Spring.’ He explains that he wanted to appear on Assange’s show because of the media blackout in Malaysia: “The entire media was groomed to support the ruling party. Even today as leader of the opposition, I don’t have even one minute of air-time.”

The 12th and final episode of Assange’s interview series will air globally on Tuesday, July 3rd at 15:30 Moscow time /11:30 GMT/7:30 EST across all RT channels in English, Arabic and Spanish, and will be rebroadcast every two hours thereafter.

The Julian Assange Show is RT’s weekly interview program created and hosted by the WikiLeaks founder. Promotional materials, an exclusive interview with Assange and the full-length video of the aired episodes are available at assange.rt.com. Assange’s show on RT generated a media firestorm and has been reported on by the most prominent media organizations and discussed in a multitude of blogs across the world. The program was actively redistributed through YouTube, Facebook and other social media, and regularly made it into the Twitter global trends.

RT, a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC, is available to 530 million viewers worldwide. RT became the first TV news channel in the world to pass 700 million views on YouTube. In 2010, RT became the first ever Russian channel to garner a nomination for the prestigious Emmy International Award, in the News category. RT streams online at RT.com.

RT Grows New York Audience Threefold in 2011

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:12:19 +0000

RT’s New York-based audience increased nearly 3 times in 2011, while its Washington audience grew by more than 60 percent over the same period, according to a Nielsen survey.

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, and in Chicago RT crowd is 3 times larger than that of Qatar’s Al Jazeera English.

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.

“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.

RT Nominated for Promax BDA Global Excellence 2012 Award

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:33:43 +0000

RT has garnered four nominations for the most prestigious award in television design and marketing, the Promax/BDA Global Excellence Awards 2012.

Two of RT’s nominations are for excellence in Promotion Marketing: Noticias No Tienen Fronteras in the News/Information Program Campaign category, and Occupy Wall Street Application (for Facebook) in the Interactive Media: Online/Interactive Games/Immerging Platforms category.

RT is also a finalist in the Design competition: promotional video for RT Spanish YouTube page is nominated in the Website Promotion – Video-Based category, and RT’s Sport News under Sports: Open/Titles.

In its nominated categories RT is competing against such prominent media outlets as CNN, Fox International Channels, Fox Sports Marketing, Turner Broadcasting System, Universal Networks International, Warner Bros. Television Marketing and NBC Sports Agency and Al Jazeera English. The award winners will be honored at the Promax/BDA: The Conference, which will take place in Los Angeles on June 12-14, 2012.

RT’s outstanding work has been repeatedly recognized by Promax/BDA. RT’s QUESTION MORE promotion campaign has won two gold awards in 2010, alongside another gold (for RT Prime Time) and bronze awards. Also in 2010, RT Spanish won six awards in the Promax/BDA Latin America competition. In 2008 the channel won the Gold Award in the Promotional Items category.

Promax/BDA is recognized as the industry standard for excellence in television marketing, advertisement and design. The contest is run annually for the best work submitted by the world’s leading TV channels.

Julian Assange Tells RT How Prison Helped Him

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:35:00 +0000

Julian Assange, creator and host of “The World Tomorrow” which premieres on RT, says the fact he had been in prison helped him build a different kind of rapport with his guests.

In an exclusive interview with RT’s Laura Smith from house arrest in London, Assange pointed out how his own experiences and approach helped his guests open up. “Most of the guests that I’ve interviewed have been in prison at some stage. I’ve been in prison. So, immediately there is a sort of rapport that is not present in a regular interview.”

Assange took the interview opportunity to explain his choice of RT as international partner for ‘The World Tomorrow’: “RT is a natural partner to produce our material. Also the same about Al Jazeera but RT had greater penetration into the United States.”

With less than 24 hours remaining before the series premieres on RT (11:30 GMT), Assange’s interview answers questions leveled at him since the project was announced in January: what prompted him to put together this series; working with RT; his approach to selecting guests; expected reactions and the challenges of creating a TV show while under house arrest.

The interview airs throughout the day on April 16th on all RT channels and is available online. The interview in full, the upcoming episodes of “The World Tomorrow” and additional information about the program will be available at http://assange.rt.com/.

“The World Tomorrow” premieres simultaneously across all RT channels on April 17 at 15:30 Moscow time/11:30 GMT/7:30 EST in English, Arabic and Spanish.

RT to Air Exclusive Project by Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:29:25 +0000

'The World Tomorrow', an exclusive new project by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, will premiere across all RT channels on April 17th.

The new series will be simultaneously broadcast from Moscow across RT’s three channels in English, Arabic and Spanish, and from Washington, DC on RT America. April 17th also marks the 500th day of the international blockade on WikiLeaks funding.

The show was filmed in London, where Julian Assange has remained under house arrest for over a year, without being officially charged. The series sees Assange, its creator and host, engage with a wide range of global notables – in his opinion, those shaping the global agenda of tomorrow.

Assange's top-secret guest list includes “figures…who normally simply would not be given a voice on TV at all. What is fair to say is that the majority of what they have said to me they could not say on a mainstream TV network.”

“We do not want to kill the buzz and the intrigue by revealing the name of the first guest,” stated RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. “But I have no doubts that this particular guest and this interview will lead to calls to shut us down from some especially hawkish personalities who have little respect for freedom of speech.”

Assange explained why he chose RT to premiere "The World Tomorrow.” “When we look at international networks there’s really only two that are worth speaking about, and that’s RT and Al Jazeera,“ noted Assange. “When we were looking what international broadcaster…we wished to partner with, we looked to see what was the penetration into the United States. RT had greater penetration into the United States.”

RT in the Finals of the Monte Carlo TV Festival

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:36:21 +0000

RT's 2-day coverage of the presidential election in Russia in March 2012 is nominated for the Golden Nymph award and is in the finals in the "Best 24-Hour News Programme" category.

RT anchors Anissa Naouai and Kevin Owen delivered round the clock coverage of all election news – from opposition meetings to the announcement of the preliminary election results. RT's correspondents sent updates from the Central Election Committee HQ, the candidates' headquarters, and Moscow streets to the mobile studio stationed in the heart of the Russian capital, overlooking the Kremlin. Prominent analysts, newsmakers and politicians weighed in live as events unfolded.

RT's Golden Nymph category competitors are the UK's SKY News and BBC, United States' CNN, Qatar's Al Jazeera English, as well as Canadian CBC, the GMA Network from the Philippines, and Bulgaria's BNT. Programs submitted by CNN, BBC, SKY News, and Al Jazeera English cover the uprising in Libya and death of Jamahiriya leader Muammar Gaddafi. The jury comprises influential names from the TV news world.

The Monte Carlo Television Festival was established in 1961 by Prince Rainier III of Monaco and since then has become the world's largest forum for TV films, shows, news reports, and news programing. The festival top prize is a gold copy of the "Salmacis" Nymph statuette commonly known as the Golden Nymph. The original copy is preserved in the Louvre Museum.

The RT network provides news coverage in three languages and is the first Russian TV network to have been nominated for the prestigious Emmy International News award in the "News" category. RT is available to an audience of over 480 million people, 25% of the world's cable television subscribers. In 2011, RT became the world's first TV news channel to get 500,000,000 views on YouTube and is currently one of YouTube's major news content providers.

Additionally, RT runs the RT America news channel operating from its studio in Washington, D.C., a documentary channel RTDoc, and a FreeVideo project. RT also streams online at the network's website RT.com.

RT Launches LG TV App

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:56:46 +0000

RT launches a new Smart TV App through LG’s global application store LG apps TV, providing happy owners of the latest generation LG Smart TVs with free access to all of RT’s TV programming.

Watching any RT channel on an LG Smart TV is now easy. It does not require any additional wiring or set-up. All the viewer needs to do is to connect their TV to the Internet and launch the RT application, available through LG apps TV.

“TV’s future is online, and Smart TV technology proves it brilliantly. We are happy that viewers of LG’s “smart” TVs can watch all of RT’s channels and no longer have to depend on cable networks or satellite signals,” said RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

Additionally, free RT applications for IPhone, Blackberry, and Android are being rolled out.

LG is among the key players in the global Smart TV market, which introduces web browsing capabilities to a TV set and enables viewers to enjoy a wide range of entertainment options such as Web content, services and applications, in addition to television programming.

The RT network comprises three news channels and a documentary channel RTDoc. Our 24/7 Broadcast from Moscow and Washington, DC studios is available for viewing in over 100 countries with a total audience of more than 480 million people. RT streams online at the network’s website, RT.com. RT is also one of the world’s largest news providers on YouTube, and the first to register half a billion views on the platform. It was also the first Russian TV network to be nominated for the prestigious Emmy International award in 2010 in the News category.

RT's Damascus Bureau Damaged in Car Bomb Attack

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:28:36 +0000

The Damascus office of Rusiya Al-Yaum, RT’s Arabic channel, has been damaged as a result of bomb attacks in Syria’s capital.

RT’s Rusiya Al-Yaum Damascus bureau was damaged by a car bomb blast in the city’s downtown on Saturday morning. The blast wave shattered windows and partially destroyed the building's façade but no RT staff were in the office at the time.

The bomb was one of two which targeted Syrian security service offices in central Damascus, killing 27 people and injured over 100.

RT’s Damascus office continues to operate, as equipment was not damaged by the explosions.

RT Profits from YouTube Success

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:46:14 +0000

RT’s profit from YouTube has exceeded a million dollars, doubling in just six months.

The financial success stems from a massive increase in RT’s popularity on YouTube. RT is the first TV news channel to surpass half a billion views on YouTube, with current total running at over 670 million.

“RT is our trump card, one of the, if not the biggest news provider on YouTube worldwide,” YouTube’s director of video partnerships Patrick Walker told MIPCOM 2011.

RT’s YouTube stats place it head and shoulders above the competition – with total views three times that of ABC news, 11 times that of Reuters, 13 times SKY News and 29 times Fox News.

RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan reflected on RT’s YouTube progress “2011 has proven very successful for our channel. We beat world records we could hardly have dreamt of a couple of years ago, which reaffirms once again that audiences are demanding an alternative view on global events”.

RT Wins Best Channel at Hotbird Awards 2011

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:06:18 +0000

Russian news channel RT was selected as the best channel representing Russia in Europe at the prestigious Hot Bird TV Awards 2011.

Founded in 1998 by Eutelsat, the Hot Bird TV Awards ceremony took place in Venice on November 25th. News channels broadcasting in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa via Eutelsat competed for prizes.

This is not the first time RT has topped international prize lists. In 2010 the channel was the first Russian broadcaster to be shortlisted in the “News” category at the Emmy International Awards.

RT was launched in 2005. The channel broadcasts 24/7 from it studios in Moscow and Washington to an estimated audience of over 430 million viewers in 100 countries. The channel is available online, at www.rt.com. RT was the first news channel in the world to break the 500 million view threshold on Youtube.

George Watts Awarded Russian Order of Friendship

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:30:35 +0000

RT journalist George Watts has been awarded the Order of Friendship for his contribution to the development of journalism in Russia.

Born in Canada, George has spent over 50 years in journalism in Russia. He moved from Canada to the USSR with his parents and brother in 1952. Since then he spent many years as anchor, editor and translator for USSR state radio. George then became the "voice" of Russia Today, right from the channel launch in 2005. As a gifted simultaneous translator, George has relayed innumerable live TV broadcasts of some of the most important political and diplomatic events of the last 5 years.

"George's experience is priceless. He is a unique professional and we are all proud of working at his side every day. I wish him good health and a long life," RT's editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said.

George received his award at a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of Russian television in the Kremlin's Catherine hall. The Order of friendship is awarded to those who have made a contribution to the development of friendship between nations or ethnic groups, distinguished themselves in developing Russia's economic and scientific potential, or facilitated cultural dialogue between nations and countries.

RT America To Launch 'Capital Account with Lauren Lyster'

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:36:24 +0000

Broadcasting live out of RT America's studios in Washington, Capital Account with Lauren Lyster is a daily, half hour news analysis and discussion show focused on alternative economic and financial news.

"With Washington as the global economic policy center, our show will bring a broader and deeper perspective to viewers, one that is often overlooked by mainstream media," said Lauren Lyster, host and financial correspondent for RT America.

The first episode will air live on Wednesday, October 19th from 4:30-5pm Eastern Standard Time on RTTV (check RT.com for local listings) and streaming live RT.com/USA.

Segments can also be found at YouTube.com/CapitalAccount.

Host and financial correspondent Lauren Lyster brings her years of field and financial reporting experience to the Capital Account. From Toronto to New York, Washington DC to Sao Paulo and Lisbon, Lauren has covered breaking news events including the G20 protests, the Brazil 2010 presidential elections and the Lisbon NATO Summit.

As a correspondent and anchor for RT she's been covering politics, the economy, and foreign policy from Washington DC and New York. Specializing in financial reporting, her stories have examined the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and US fiscal policies. She has interviewed top economists and financial professionals such as Nobel-Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz and investor Jim Rogers. She previously worked as a senior analyst at the equity research firm Tiburon Research Group in San Francisco.

Producer and contributor Demetri Kofinas brings years of financial reporting experience to the show as the former producer and host of Covering the Spread, a radio show on 91.5 FM WYNE New York. Demetri is also the creator and lead contributor for CoveringDelta.com, an alternative online financial news outlet. He's covered financial crises and provided live around-the-clock coverage of austerity protests in Greece for RTTV.

RT Begins Broadcasting on MiND Television in Philadelphia

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:19:53 +0000

RT has started round-the-clock broadcasting in Philadelphia, adding 2 million households to the channel’s U.S. audience reach.

RT is partnering with MiND: Media Independence, a Philadelphia-based independent public broadcast station. RT is broadcasting on digital channel 35.4, and is also available on cable systems throughout the region, including, Comcast and Cablevision. As a result, RT programs are now available in 2 million households in Philadelphia and its suburbs.

“Today it is especially relevant to expand the channel’s footprint in the U.S., given the growing popularity of RT as a source of information that’s alternative to the mainstream media,” says Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief.

“RT is a wonderful addition to MiND’s program services in Philadelphia,” said MiND CEO Howard Blumenthal. “We believe that people should ‘Question More’ - which is RT’s tagline.”

The overall number of potential RT viewers in the U.S. has almost reached 50 million. Beyond Philadelphia, RT is available on cable in Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, San-Francisco, San Diego and Chicago. RT programming is also accessible across the U.S. via the GlobeCast WorldTV satellite platform.

Nielsen Media Research* found that residents of Washington and New York prefer watching RT to other international news channels. Nielsen found RT's average daily audience in Washington is bigger than that of Euronews, Deutsche Welle, France 24, and CCTV News, the English-language Chinese news channel. In New York, Nielsen research indicates that RT’s daily audience exceeds the average daily audience of Deutsche Welle, Arabic Al Jazeera English and CCTV News.

RT to Help Judge Current Affairs Category at International Emmy Awards

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:46:49 +0000

Two representatives of RT have been invited to the jury of the International Emmy Awards for the Current Affairs category – RT presenter Bill Dod and channel Deputy Editor-in-Chief Aleksey Nikolov.

“It’s a huge success for me to be among the elite of the TV industry judging the programs competing, and represent RT. It’s a testimony to the channel’s high reputation worldwide and to its leading position in television journalism,” says RT presenter Bill Dod.

The annual International Emmy Awards jury comprises professionals from top global television stations. Bill also made it to last year’s International Emmy Awards ceremony in New York, but as a nominee; RT became the first Russian TV channel be shortlisted for a ‘News’ nomination through Bill’s coverage of U.S. President Barack Obama’s debut visit to Russia in July 2009.

RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan said “We are very pleased that RT is partaking in the Emmy awards for the second year in a row. We made the finals in the news category last year. This year a part of our team will help choose the winners.”

RT was launched in 2005. The channel broadcasts 24/7 from its studios in Moscow and Washington to over 100 countries and an estimated audience of 400 million. RT was the first news channel in the world to top 500 million YouTube views. In March 2011 RT claimed top spot in YouTube’s global rating, beating the Vevo music video portal. RT can also be viewed online at RT.com.

The annual “International Emmy Awards”, or “television’s Oscar,” is considered to be one of the most prestigious in the world. It is awarded by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the world’s largest union of television professionals from around the globe. The 39th International Emmy awards will take place in New York on November 21st.

RT to Broadcast on Aeroflot Flights

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:35:42 +0000

RT programs are provided to Aeroflot passengers through in-flight infotainment across several viewing categories.

RT news bulletins will bring RT on-air stories from around the world. Award winning RT documentaries, including several Media Excellence and New York Festival winners, are available in-flight. And RT travel guides will take passengers on a video tour of their destination city.

RT is available in English and Russian onboard long-haul Aeroflot aircraft offering integrated in-flight entertainment systems, such as the Airbus A330 and Boeing 767, as well as on flights of over 5 hours, where business class passengers are provided with portable media players (PMPs).

“We are happy to have launched our cooperation with Aeroflot, which represents Russia among the world’s largest passenger air carriers,” says RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan. “Now our viewers will also be able to watch RT in-flight. This will give them an opportunity to get to know Russia while still flying to it.”

RT is a round-the-clock news network broadcasting in English, Arabic and Spanish out of bureaus in Moscow and Washington, DC. It is already available to 430 million viewers, 22 percent of the world’s total cable subscribers. RT is the world’s first TV news network to receive over 500 million views on Youtube. In 2010, RT became the first Russian TV channel to reach the final of the prestigious Emmy International Television Award with a “News and Current Affairs” nomination. RT broadcasts, programming and other content is available at RT.COM.

RT Sets TV News Channel Record for Youtube Hits

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:42:02 +0000

RT’s total view count on YouTube has now exceeded half a billion, making the Russian news channel a world record setter.

In terms of the total view count, RT is well ahead of other major media outlets - Al Jazeera English gets only half as many hits; Reuters and Sky News are viewed 12 times less; and CNN International receives 100 times fewer clicks. Thanks to its snowballing popularity, RT’s revenue from Youtube has already exceeded half a million U.S. Dollars.

“It’s a remarkable achievement, and I’m proud that we made it over such a short period of time,” said RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

In 2007, RT was the first of Russia’s channels to start uploading content to the world’s largest video hosting service, YouTube. In March 2011, RT became YouTube’s most viewed channel, beating the hugely popular music video website Vevo.

As of today, RT’s total view count on YouTube has exceeded 500 million and, according to YouTube Trends analysts, is growing at an average rate of 850 thousand views per day.

RT Launches New Documentary Channel - RTDoc

newsdesk@newsonnews.net (Newsdesk) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:37:58 +0000

The RT family has a new member. RTDoc, a TV channel featuring documentaries about Russia, has launched, broadcasting 24/7 in English.

The new channel’s open signal coming from the Hot Bird satellite will be received by 120 million households across Europe as well as in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

The bulk of RTDoc broadcast will be exclusive documentaries about Russia, produced in-house by RT. Among them films that have won international prizes such as Media Excellence and New York Festivals Awards.

“Cable operators welcome documentary content in their networks because it remains invariably popular with audiences. Viewers tire of dynamic news streams and switch to ethnographic and educational formats. We’re launching a new documentary channel about Russia exactly for the purpose of giving the viewer this alternative,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT editor-in-chief.

Strong interest has been shown by cable operators all over the world. RTDoc’s reach covers network subscribers in Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Bulgaria. In the United States and Canada, more than a million viewers can watch RTDoc on the IPTV Roku system. Viewers can also watch RTDoc online at the RTD.RT.COM.

The new channel will feature a documentary series on Russian cities (Discovering Russia), customs and traditions of the peoples of Russia (Faces of Russia), science and technology (Technology Update) as well as a series on the environment (Meeting with Nature). Historical Faces explores the history of Russia and Culture Fair will broadcast films on culture, art and fashion. Inter-program section will diversify the content. For example, A Little Bit of Russian will help English speaking viewers learn the basics of the Russian language. RT correspondents, editors and presenters will play the role of teachers.

In addition to RTDoc, the RT family unites four TV News channels, an online video agency and four multimedia portals. The English-language RT channel went on air in December 2005; the Arabic channel Rusiya-al-Yaum was launched in May 2007; in December 2009, RT launched its Spanish-language channel. RT America, broadcasting in prime time to American viewers, was the last in line: going on air in January 2010.

RT was the first Russian television channel to be nominated for an Emmy International Television Awards, a TV Oscar, in the News category, while RT’s YouTube channel is close to half a billion views.

RTDoc’s broadcast on Hot Bird satellite:

Hot Bird 8, 13°E (frequency : 12015 Mhz, polarization: H, symbol rate: 27500, FEC: ¾)