Analyst Alexey Bukin holds an interview with General Director of RBC Group Yury Rovensky.

BR: Your new project RBC TV was launched in September 2003. Why is it that TV became the next step made by RBC in its development?

- We had a perfect understanding that RBC is an established and reputable brand on the market of business information. Of course, we could further develop what we had. We could ensure a 100-percent exposure to the audience from the current 96 percent. But this is a very ungrateful thing to do. It requires a lot of efforts with brand recognition going up only a little. We did discuss the idea of arranging our own radio broadcasting, or establishing a printed mass media. But there was one thing that we were concerned about: all these already exist on the market. It is not that we were afraid of competition, but the principle itself.

I believe any goal has to be ambitious. The more ambitious it is, the more drive there is, and the more results can be achieved. This is how we came up with the idea to establish business television. I can tell you, there was a lot of skepticism. Even those who were very friendly with us were saying: "Hey, guys! You are playing Russian Roulette again. The market is not ready. Don't take the risk. You will wrench your neck."

BR: How long did it take to implement this idea?

- It took us nine months to build the television channel. I find this number very symbolic. We did everything during this period: we renovated the building, purchased and installed the equipment, built distribution channels, received licenses, as well as hired and trained our personnel. We managed to invite highly professional specialists from the TV business to work for our project. Their experience helped us a lot. But we weren't simply copying already existing channels. We were building an absolutely new channel. For many cameramen and anchormen it was a total destruction of stereotypes. For example, any television channel pays a lot of attention to the "appearance of our show" itself and to the variety of stories. We don't care about that. The number one thing for our channel is information. Switching on RBC TV, people don't expect any entertainment. They look for information, as compact as possible, without any lyrics or fluff. These are like bricks that our viewers build their impression about our channel with.

BR: What are the initial results of the channel?

-Today, we can definitely say that the television project has been accepted. This is not simply our view, but this is the opinion of professionals, and the market's estimation. Our television channel is an absolutely new thing. It is oriented straight at a certain audience, whose interests we know very well. In Moscow, our channel broadcasts via satellite and cable channels, such as Kosmos-TV, NTV-Plus, Divo-TV, and Comcor. In addition, the territory of RBC TV includes Saint Petersburg, and almost all major cities. We begin to reach more and more Russian regions. In February 2004, the channel's audience in Russia was 12 million. At the same time, we broadcast via the Internet, which makes our channel accessible not only in Russia, but in the USA, Israel and Europe as well. RBC TV has 18-hour active broadcasting. Programs of the day are replayed during the early morning hours. We are a digital television channel. This made it possible for us to ensure high quality "appearance of our show" and, additionally, to create a whole network of remote cameras for live reports. We had them installed at the offices of those institutions and companies that are considered true newsmakers. Their specialists and analysts can make live reports right from their desks. We have about 30 cameras like this already. This is a principal feature of our policies. We have no intention to monopolize the air. On the contrary, we tend to build a platform for discussions and have all opinions represented there.

BR: How do you estimate further outlooks for the development of your group of companies?

- Talking about the strategic goal, it is the following. It took RBC ten years to turn from a very little company into a medium company. Over the next five years we are going to grow into a big company with multi-million-dollar turnovers.

Our plans are in many ways connected with the appearance of CIS countries on the market. We consider it very important to develop our business information broadcasting in the former USSR republics, mainly, in Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. In the future, we may build a global business broadcasting network in Russian. But it still remains our dream and goal.

RBC's concept itself will remain unchanged, i.e. business news broadcasting for Russian businesses, about Russian businesses. We are not trying to cover everything, and I think that this is exactly what our competitive advantage is all about.