The RBC television channel commemorated its first anniversary in the Gostinny Dvor hall on Wednesday. Politicians, businessmen and television employees proposed toasts to the welfare of the TV channel and were talking about how this business TV channel changed the Russian media.

The creation of the RBC TV channel confirms the idea that the whole world and our country advance toward the establishment of targeted TV channels. According to data of the TNS Gallup Media market research company, in 2003 there were 16 federal and network TV channels in Russia and about half of them focused on targeted programs, namely news, entertainment, sports, music, culture and education.

The RBC TV channel is unique, because it is a true news channel. News blocks are aired every 30 minutes, and RBC TV broadcasts the program Markets every 40 minutes, and the number of live broadcasts is up to 70 per day. "We understood that we were working on such a TV channel, which had never existed in our country before, RBC General Director Yury Rovensky said. Of course, we have taken into account what kind of similar products exists in the West, but we created a TV channel that was necessary for Russia. We feel like pioneers."

The new broadcasting format made the company use every technical opportunity offered by the TV market. RBC TV may boast about using technologies, which are not implemented by any other Russian TV company. The Company has remote cameras placed in a dozen major Russian banks and investment companies and analysts' comments are broadcasted live from their offices. "The advent of the first informational TV channel will surely spur the birth of competitors, head of the РR-service of Rambler Ivan Zasursky said. And RBC TV is an accelerator of the development of Russian TV in this segment." After RBC TV's first year of broadcasting it is clear that its programs exercised a serious influence over the whole area of Russian TV. Like after the birth of the Kultura TV channel new culture programs appeared on Russian TV, other federal channels started paying more attention to economic news after the appearance of RBC TV. The amount of economic information broadcasted on TV increased, and talk about the situation on the market appeared. New blocks began including economic information. Moreover, certain channels appreciated RBC TV's stylistics. The business TV channel is actively using rolling captions and tickers to provide more information. Nowadays, rolling captions are common for other TV channels. And thanks to RBC TV, our television has found a language appropriate to reflect modern economic life. "I believe that the ability to inform people about market relations using a comprehensible language is a major advantage of RBC TV," Transneft President Semyon Vainshtok pointed out.

Figures are the best way to show the need of economic information. About 40m people can watch RBC TV a year after its launch. Cable operators use RBC TV programs in their broadcasts in 13 Russian cities with a population of over 1m people and about two dozen other Russian industrial and business centers. RBC TV broadcasts in the CIS (Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus) and the Baltic states. But the more important fact is that Russian public and authorities are able to listen to the Russian business community now. "A TV channel makes important problems publicly discussed. People are used to this in the West, but for Russia it is something new," Alfa Bank Managing Director Dominic Gualtieri believes. RBC TV has shown how to make a television project profitable. Private television is only 15 years old in Russia. The 2x2 TV channel is considered to be the first independent commercial TV project. And Russia has been disappointed more than once over these past years; disputes over owners of the TV-6 and the NTV channels are worth noting. These projects made one doubt if it was possible to create a successful TV channel of nation-wide importance. As Manana Aslamazian, the Vice President of the National Association of TV and Radio Broadcasters, believes, after the scandals involving NTV and TV-6, "owners of TV companies have learnt that they are vulnerable if they depend on Russian authorities. In the world private television is highly profitable, if a significant amount of money is invested. If it not for money, television becomes means of propaganda."

The business TV channel accounted for over $5.6m, or 12 percent, of the overall profits of RBC. RBC TV contributed $3.5m to the overall earnings of the media holding in the first quarter of 2004 (this amount is projected to reach $16m by the end of this year). It was impossible that the birth of RBC TV would not influence the advertising market. Business television puts a claim on certain advertisers offering them access to the wealthiest viewers. The core audience of RBC TV is Russia's affluent class, or 10 percent of its population, which account for 30 percent of aggregate personal income in Russia, according to the data of the Russian Federal Statistics Service. They are those who can buy real estate and expensive goods and travel. In other words, they are called a "goldmine." Analysts of investment companies forecast that RBC will show a record high rate of growth in revenue among large Russian companies. It is expected to enjoy an 18-percent annual surge in revenue. The say that the TV project will contribute the most to this increase.