A new business season began with the celebration of the first anniversary of the Russian business television channel RBC TV in Russia. Hundreds of very important persons arrived in the Gostinny Dvor hall to congratulate the hero of the occasion. There was also a real tiger there. "Though a lion used to be the king of animals, tigers are weightier. Go, ask my colleague Nikolay Drozdov," host of the ceremony Svyatoslav Belza said, as he thinks RBC TV deserves such an honorary totem after the first year of broadcasting.

Senior Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov was the first government official to congratulate RBC TV. "Truly speaking, I am surprised that RBC TV has turned only one, - he admitted. - The channel seems to have been here for a long period of time. I like it for two reasons. First of all, RBC TV features plenty of up-to-date and true economic information. And secondly, I like the way it is presented, no unnecessary emotions. For these very reasons I became a consistent viewer of the Russian business television, and I watch it very often."

The fact that Russian television can be objective seems to be a pleasant surprise for our government officials. As Deputy Chairman of the State Duma's Banking Committee Pavel Medvedev declared his love to the newborn, he said almost the same thing as his colleague in the executive branch of the Russian government said. "Not just malicious but even incorrect information can lead to negative events, - the lawmaker mentioned as he still remembers the recent banking crisis. - RBC TV always tells the truth, all its programs are trustworthy."

As far as businessmen are concerned, many of them, for example, Vice President of Commerce of Euroset Sergey Fomichev tended to call the newly established TV channel an atavism: why waste time that we always lack waiting for information on TV? It is more efficient to look for it on a computer. "I would never call myself a conservative person, but my consumer preferences, especially the ones that concern the media sphere, almost never change, - top manager of Euroset declared. - However, RBC TV actually managed to change my beliefs. Why are they so special? Because they have done all the dirty work for me highlighting the most important and interesting news, and I don't have to whistle in the wind. I should say here, that the new channel is unlikely to have drawn my attention if I weren't used to read news on www.rbc.ru every day. When I heard about RBC TV I thought the guys from RBC must have come up with something good. I'll have to look. And I was right."

The constant audience of the information agency RosBusinessConsulting, which is mainly represented by businessmen and well-paid white-collars used to associate RBC mainly with the Internet. Did the founders of the new business channel have any doubts whether this audience would accept the new format of distributing RBC news or not? This question was asked of General Director of the RBC group of companies Yury Rovensky and seemed to have surprised him. "For God's sake! What are you talking about? Before we decided to establish the first Russian business television we analyzed the market, in particular checked on the willingness of our Internet users to become the viewers of RBC TV. The results exceeded our expectations."

You can imagine it costs quite a lot to launch a TV channel. It is worth mentioning here that the parent company of the RBC holding, namely RBC Information Systems, conducted the first Russian IPO a couple of years ago. It was a sensational success. RBC placed its shares on the RTS and MICEX exchanges. They sold like hot cakes. The major part of the IPO proceeds went to finance RBC TV, a 100% subsidiary of the RBC holding. It is natural that the first business television is not simply a fine gesture, but a business project that has to pay off and make a profit. RBC had to choose between subscribers' fees or ad revenues. Shareholders and top managers of the holding chose the second.

"Advertising accounts for not more than six minutes per our on RBC TV. - Yury Rovensky says. - Compared to other Russian TV channels it is unbelievingly small. However, this very amount of advertising is what makes both viewers (which is absolutely natural) and advertisers happy. Well, of course we feel happy too. Just have a look at our figures." And they are impressive indeed. In the first quarter of 2004, the TV channel made $3.5m, and by the end of the year its revenues are expected to hit $16m.

According to editor-in-chief of the Russian business television channel Mikhail Ermolayev, one of the main accomplishments of RBC TV's team is that it created a specialized TV channel about business, which is well recognized and in no way depends on anybody's will. "Our information programs are based on a new philosophy. We intentionally left out social issues. You can scream about a water-pipe breach at grandma's for as long as you want. But this is not going to help either her or the country. It's time to take a hammer and nails and start building. Our number one goal is to make the people build a new economy. That way everything will be fine with grandma's water-pipe."