Late Wednesday, the first Russian business television channel RBC TV celebrated its first anniversary. Politicians, top managers of Russian and foreign companies, and public figures were invited to the Gostinny Dvor hall. Politicians and businessmen seemed to have been competing with each other who would pay more compliments to the first Russian business television.

"I always watch RBC TV, - Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexander Zhukov said. - This channel always gives me the possibility to receive the latest news if there is something happening in business, politics, or in the world." Lawmakers and businessmen said similar things.

As it appeared from congratulations and talk in the corridors, that key decision-makers in politics or business can't live without RBC TV anymore, the channel that distributes its signal for free and helps make millions. This paradox is an adequate reaction to the initiatives of those who want to introduce TV taxes in Russia.

How much is TV? And who should pay for it? These questions arise every time people talk about mechanisms of ensuring the quality and independence of Russian television channels.

Among the loudest events of the previous summer was the announcement made by Head of the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency Mikhail Shvydkoy regarding the necessity to pass a law on paid TV. According to the ex-Culture Minister, the price might be 100 to 200 rubles per TV set, which he thinks is not much. However, last year the idea voiced at a round-table meeting devoted to the bill 'On Public Television' was to charge a lot less than that, namely 3 percent of the minimum wage per month from employed people, and 8-10 rubles from pensioners (in addition to 8-9 rubles that they already pay for using public antennas).

In the opinion of paid TV adherents, a subscriber fee is the only lever that viewers might use to influence channels' programming policies, in order to do away with poor programs, excessive advertising and even too much passion for certain ideologies. One should admit that a mechanism that would fulfill the wishes of millions of viewers can hardly be imagined. Public television is a utopia. On the other hand, there can be TV channels that are of great public importance and that still broadcast for free. These are mainly specialized channels with well-structured business plans. RBC TV that celebrates its first anniversary in September 2004 is a good example here.

"Niche television has been developing worldwide recently. I think Russia will shift to a greater differentiation of topic channels too, - General Director of RBC TV said. - Indeed, the main advantage of a niche television channel is that it deals with more specialized information, and therefore has a clearer audience. Of course, advertisers will only benefit from that, as advertising among a certain audience is definitely more efficient."

A perfect television channel should first of all become a certain product aimed at certain buyers. Viewers should know what to expect next: movies, news or intellectual talk shows. Our world is like a big supermarket, in which everybody is trying to find what they like. That is why modern producers do their best to differentiate their products. It is surprising that such a common thing can hardly survive in Russian media business. Most television that we watch now is the television of the previous century. Program schedules of as many as half of our television channels resemble a hodge-podge that is served for everybody. So, it is no surprise that not everybody likes it.

RBC's shareholders understood all this perfectly well as they were working on a business plan for the first Russian business television channel. They actually had three main success factors. The group of companies that specializes in mass media and information technologies had the largest business audience among other Russian mass media (around 2 million people), the experience of dealing with specific information (economic and financial news), and all the necessary financing as well (in 2002 the company conducted the first Russian IPO on RTS and MICEX exchanges and raised $13.28m). As a result, it took RBC less than two years to launch the national news channel.

Today, RBC TV can be considered the most successful media project of the year. By the end of 2003, the business television channel earned over $5.6m, which accounted for around 12% of all revenues of the RBC Group. In the first quarter of 2004, RBC TV made $3.5m, and this figure is expected to be $16m by the end of 2004. Today, RBC TV can be watched by about 40m people in Russia. All Russian cities with a population of over 1m, as well as more than 20 industrial and business centers, CIS states, namely Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states can watch the channel now.

The channel has not only gained public recognition after the first year of broadcasting (for example, it received an Honorable Mention from Kosmos-TV, and became the winner of the 6th Eurasian TV Forum in the special category "The Main TV Event of 2003"), but also deserved the most optimistic comments from investment analysts. According to Metropol analysts, RBC TV is the fastest-growing business branch of RosBusinessConsulting, and will be accounting for up to 40% of the holding's revenues by 2010.

The reason of the channel's commercial success is that it made a bid on advertisers instead of viewers. RBC TV is a finished product for the business audience. Its core is the upper middle class, the 10% of the population of Russia, those who make 30% of all income, according to the State Statistics Committee of Russia. These are the people who can afford real estate, expensive purchases, and traveling. This audience is a creme de la creme for advertisers!

But this doesn't mean that the television channel is interesting for certain specialists only. The core of the audience is one thing, but general interest is another. Senior Deputy Chairman of the State Duma's Agrarian Committee Nikolay Kharitonov was quoted as saying that "no other Russian TV channel covers economic news as detailed as RBC TV does. Rich and poor people watch RBC TV's programs, because they are interesting for both of them." And this is natural. Everybody wants to improve their wellbeing. For example, 90% of employed people watch business television in the USA. The fact is that the Americans are more interested in economic news is because they all have shares, and watch their quotes as enthusiastically as we watch weather forecasts.

However, stock market professionals believe that the average Russian gets more and more interested in economic news. "People have been getting less suspicious about the idea of using the stock market as an additional source of income recently, - Deputy CEO of Uniastrum Bank Denis Yeganov said. - So, our country is now in desperate need for educational programs that would teach our people how to make investments and work on stock markets. We have been teaching our clients successful trading for a long period of time already, and, therefore, appreciate what RBC TV does in this direction. It is true that more and more stock market participants refer to RBC TV's specialists when making decisions." Well, just go ahead watch the channel, learn and get rich!