Business & Baltia (Riga)
September 2, 2003

First business TV channel launched in Russia

It is difficult to speak about business on Russian television, that is why the launch of the first business TV channel by our eastern neighbor is an interesting event. The launch of RBC TV, the new baby of the RosBusinessConsulting holding (RBC), is scheduled for today.

RBC, one of the main suppliers of financial and economic information on the Russian market (it runs the information web portal www.rbc.ru and the RBC-daily newspaper), started a television project. RBC General Director Yury Rovensky linked the launch of a business TV channel to the following factors, "In the current situation on television, any mentioning of somebody's business activities immediately makes a channel's leadership conclude that it has to do with bribing. As a result, journalists avoid business topics like the plague. They are afraid of accusations of being biased. As a result, we have impaired broadcasting consisting of politics, sports and accidents but not business. This is a vicious approach."

Analysts are not unanimous as to the future of the new business television. According to data from Comcon, the potential audience of the new channel may reach about 13 million people in Russia, including more than 1.5 million in Moscow. Observers are more meager in their estimates, however, they admit that this audience does exist. It is difficult to say whether the new project of RBC will be interesting to and useful for this audience. This will depend on the possibility to present unbiased news. We still remember that "bought" news resulted in the disappearance of business topics from central TV channels. We will wait and see whether RBC will prove that honest business TV journalism is possible in Russia. RBC Chairman and President German Kaplun is certain, "We have chosen the most popular time for launch and we are absolutely sure of the success of our undertaking."

It would be worth mentioning that the holding invested $15m in the TV project. If necessary, the company is ready to increase investments to $18m or $20m. According to estimates of the company's management, RBC TV will break even at the end of the second year of broadcasting and it will be paid back in full in 3 years.

Vlad Votrov