RBC’s new affiliate goes on TV

Yury Rovensky: “I am sure that such channel will be in demand”

RBC has launched the first Russian business channel RBC-TV in test mode. A broad audience will get access to it beginning September 1. Like all RBC’s affiliates, the TV channel is an independent division with its own financial policies. 24-hour broadcasting is planned, including on the Internet, as well as free access to information. An observer of the Russian Courier discusses the principles of the channel’s activities and its peculiar features with RBC’s General Director Yury Rovensky.

- There are a lot of TV channels in Russia now, how will RBC-TV differ from them?

- It will differ much. First of all, this is an information channel about business life; its major specialization is news of the business world, information, and analysis.

- And you believe that the channel will be in demand, don’t you?

- I am sure it will. It will just not target at one and all, but at a specific group of people. Respectively, it will live under other laws, which will also determine the business plan of this project. Its potential audience is about 12 million people, though I think that in this case the number of viewers does not matter, as we shall be making a high-quality product necessary for a specific audience. One will be able to watch the channel first of all in the 12 largest cities of Russia. We have already signed agreements with NTV+, Kosmos TV, and DIVO TV. Additionally, we shall broadcast via the tochka.ru Internet provider. We did this at the request of dealers and brokers who work on the exchange; it is much more convenient for them to have a window displayed on their computer monitors and receive only the most important information.

- Do you think that such channel will break even?

- Sure. We make what they call niche television. Our audience creates an absolutely new layer of advertisers who could not reach their consumers before. They are both audit companies and the B2B sector. They will be able to make themselves known. We have already signed a number of advertising agreements for the first year of the channel’s operation. Under these conditions, the channel is to break even by the end of the second year of broadcasting.

- Who will work on this channel?

- A creative team – it is a community of journalists who specialize in economics and worked at RTR, NTV, REN TV, and TVS, technical specialists, analysts and brokers, whom we invited to work with us as anchorpersons and commentators. The RBC news agency will be a major, but not the only, “news factory”. In total, this makes 1,000 people: over 400 people at the channel and about 600 at the information agency.

- How many programs are planned within the channel?

- Quite a lot, as the channel will be on the air 24 hours. The basic programming includes news programs, programs about markets and industries, round-table discussions, and economic conversations. Additionally, there are specialized journalist projects. For example, there are programs connected with discussing or conducting ratings, which are compiled by some agencies, business press reviews and the development of topics the press covers. The Success Formula, the Night Talk. In fact, we combine analytical and information broadcasting policies on one channel. This has no analogs in the world.

Alexander Avdoshin