Ekonomika I Zhizn (Moscow)
September 6, 2003
RBC TV - a new word in a business dictionary
Yury Rovensky, General Director of RBC
The first Russian business television RBC TV was launched on September 2. This is a new project of the RBC Group, which includes an information agency RosBusinessConsulting. According to General Director of RBC Yury Rovensky, today we see a clear demand for a television channel about Russian business, for Russian business, and RBC TV is set to meet this demand. RBC's ten years of experience in the sphere of business information and cooperation with leading Western agencies and television channels, among which are CNN, CNBC and Reuters, will ensure the project's success.
Foreign partners of RBC give their highest estimations to the project. Senior Vice President of CNN Maggie Eales said: "We think that we've chosen a promising partner on the market." At the same time, President and Managing Director of CNBC Europe Rick Cotton mentioned that RBC TV boosted economic development of the country.
The 24-hour broadcasting is based on business news and business analysis. RBC TV will be broadcasted in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other major Russian cities. The channel will be disseminated via satellite channels, cable networks, regional broadcasters and also via cable and terrestrial broadcasting. In addition, RBC TV can be watched on the Internet.
According to estimations of the COMCON sociological research agency, the potential audience of the channel exceeds 12 million people. RBC's management hopes to hit this number by the end of next year. RBC TV's viewers are mainly 25-55-year-olds with higher education and above average income: businessmen, high- and middle-level managers, employees of banks, exchanges, investment, audit and consulting companies, as well as journalists.
The total amount of investments in the project will reach some $23 million. RBC plans to have the channel reach the break-even point by the end of the second year of operation with a payback period of three and a half years.
As far as the business model of the channel is concerned, it is completely based on advertising revenues. A specialized television channel watched by a business audience is very attractive for many advertisers. For example, these are companies operating in the B2B sector as well as those involved in the production and development of luxury goods. And RBC TV's viewers are exactly their potential clients.
The launching of the first Russian business channel is commented on by weighty bankers, economists and the Mass Media.
Senior Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Tatyana Paramonova thinks that the launching of RBC TV is another successful step of a rapidly developing company. In the opinion of Vladimir Pozner, the business television channel may have a very serious audience, may be, not a big one, but very powerful. "The one who takes the place first, normally, becomes the winner," the President of the Russian TV Academy stressed.
"A developed country cannot do without a strong and socially active middle class - managers and small- and medium-sized businesses." It is hard to argue with such statement of President of the US Chamber of Commerce to Russia Andrew Sommers. For these people the television channel can be a force that is so important for the self-identification of the Russian middle class now. In other words, RBC TV has every chance to become a part of the history of Russia's economic development.
