Russian Courier (Moscow), September 3, 2003
New television for "white-collars"
A television has finally appeared in Russia for those who can't live without quotes. Yesterday, the RosBusinessConsulting holding launched a "niche" television channel that will be broadcasting via cable channels and is set to reach an audience of 8 million people by the end of this year.
RosBusinessConsulting picked one of the most respectable Moscow hotels Marriott Grand Hotel for the presentation of its project. This hotel is popular for hosting various economic forums at its premises quite often.
Starting at 10 a.m. people from various social groups began gathering on the second floor of the hotel, from well-groomed men in haute couture suits to young journalists in democratic-looking jeans. People were glancing at each other and glossy brochures about RBC's achievements on the information and computer markets. Those, who didn't have time to eat breakfast at home, were offered coffee and fresh croissants.
Fancy magazines in English, foreign guests in nice suits and their sophisticated conversations in undertones about financial outlooks and stock markets - all these were creating an atmosphere of selectness. Managers and executives of financial companies were eagerly exchanging business cards and handshakes with each other. It became clear that RBC had managed to gather business and serious people even for its presentation.
If we look at those invited to the presentation, it becomes clear that RBC had determined the core audience of its new channel right. Among the main viewers of the new television will be 25-54-year-old men who work more than 30 hours per week. According to Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-Founder of RBC German Kaplun, "the new channel is supposed to keep middle- and top-level managers as well as economists, business men and stock exchange people informed about the situation in various industries." This channel's appeal pleased member of the Expert Council of RBC TV and scientific supervisor of the Higher School of Economics Yevgheny Yasin and he arrived at the presentation to give his best wishes to the channel's management in person.
In his welcome speech Mr. Yasin mentioned that "Russia is now at the origins of real business and serious economy, which, definitely, can't do without substantial information support." The new television, which has no analogues on the Russian TV, is the one that shall provide this support.
As far as the USA and Europe are concerned, they saw the first "niche" television fully oriented at business, economic and political news in mid 80's. Today, European business television channels CNBC Europe and CNN kindly agreed to cooperate with RBC TV. But in addition to information programming RBC TV will also have its own educational programming. The fact that the development of the domestic stock market is rather slow, made RBC TV decide to provide stock exchange participants with quotes from world exchanges. A scrolling line at the bottom of the screen will contain information about the situation on world markets and top news in each hour. The new channel will have news blocks every 30 minutes. They will include both topic and general news.
A program called "Markets" will, undoubtedly, gain its own audience. RBC TV's journalists will be telling its viewers about the course of trading on Russian and foreign trading floors with simultaneous comments and forecasts of experts.
As far as the programming itself is concerned, it is split into three parts - a morning block, a daytime block and an evening block. Morning programs will be created for managers who need a "summary" of business information before they leave for work. In the daytime, RBC TV will have so-called "office programming" as well as analytical comments. Economic events covered by the television channel will be followed by comments of "professionals:" bank employees and managers who came to the channel from existing economic organizations. In order to make sure that their commentaries are not only professional but also of high quality (in terms of how they are presented on screen), RBC TV even arranged special training for them. Experienced teachers shared their experience with those who used to be managers and brokers in the past concerning the way of building phrases and looking perfect on screen.
As far as we know, the channel now staffs some 500 people. It is amazing that according to its officials, most of the channel's income will be spent on salaries. To date, the channel has $23 million in place, including $6 million in foreign investments.
The structure of the channel's relationship with its advertisers is worth mentioning here as well. According to preliminary projections, by the end of 2003 the company will generate $3.2 million in advertising revenues with $2.7 million already paid to the channel. General Director of RBC TV Artyom Inutin made an announcement that he was absolutely against too much advertising on the channel: RBC can provide advertisers with only 6 minutes in each hour. And depending on the time of appearing a commercial on the screen advertising prices will vary between $600 and $3,500. It is worth mentioning that there won't be any "Tetya Asya" (a washing powder brand) commercials on RBC TV. The channel will be advertising "luxury" goods, aimed at business elite.
Despite its huge plans related to the new project, the company RosBusinessConsulting is still working on Internet broadcasting that, to tell the truth, has already brought serious dividends. Even though we won't be able to watch RBC TV's live broadcasting on the Internet now, nevertheless, the main news items and "hot" analytical materials are sure to appear on RBC's web site.
