Judging from the competition for university entrants, the profession of an economist remains both the most popular and one of the most claimed. Statistical data shows that 90 percent of the senior students at departments of economics have some practical experience in their field. They have enough examples to follow. According to the latest poll by VCIOM, successful businesspeople are idols for almost half of the young people, leaving far behind sportspersons (37 percent), characters in TV serials (28 percent) and even Vladimir Putin (14 percent).

Fashion changes swiftly for the young. T-shirts with Che Guevara are replaced with business suits, shirts and ties, and music channels seem to have lost popularity in comparison with RBC business television. In fact, according to information from COMCON-Media, no other TV channel in Russia can compete with RBC TV for the young audience. Interestingly, the story of RBC TV is really astonishing. The TV channel was launched a year ago under a slogan "everything about business and for business." Experts reckoned it could count on becoming a really unique "extension of the product line oriented to business audience," as Rambler PR-Service Director Ivan Zasurskiy put it. However, it was discovered gradually that RBC TV's popularity had been growing at a fantastic rate. At present, RBC TV is accessible to residents of all 13 cities with a population of over 1m and 20 other industrial and business centers in Russia, the CIS and Baltic countries.

The interest in "real" economy in our country can explain the business channel's popularity. At the same time until recently, there had been no accessible and professional source of up-to-date economic and financial information. Business newspapers and the Internet cannot meet the need for information nationwide. As Alexander Yushkevich, the general director of the RusPromAvto holding company, pointed out, the launching of RBC TV was "an important move in the development of civilized business in Russia."

On the one hand, RBC TV fills up information vacuum, and on the other hand, it supports the elimination of widely-spread "economic illiteracy." Obviously, RBC TV has gained high popularity with active young people not because it shows their idols every day. It shows a way to achieve the same success. People teaching correct investment practices have been the first to remark on RBC TV's potential for enlightenment. "We have been watching RBC TV practically since its opening," Denis Yeganov, the deputy chairman of the Yuniastrum Bank Executive Board, declared. "Programs of the channel are not just quite informative but also are a good training appliance for us and our clients," Yeganov said.

Thanks to RBC TV, business experts and theorists, as well as lawmakers and government officials, who are the people whom the country's business environment directly depends upon, have become instructors for RBC TV's viewers. Commentaries by officers of the leading banks, investment funds, exchanges, audit and consulting companies are offered on the channel. Specialized thematic programs (such as "Insurance" or "Issuers"), devoted to the key economic sectors, are a special aspect of the editorial policy of the business television. In general, the TV channel has everything. Even such little things as quotations from great men, who suggested that people should not look down on money. As Honore de Balzac once put it, "one seeking millions will rarely find them but one not seeking them will never find!"