Kariera (Career), Moscow - October 6, 2003

Business Has Its Own Television Now

On September 2, the first Russian business television channel RBC TV was launched by the RBC Group. RBC TV broadcasts for free and 24 hours a day of which 18 hours are live broadcasting. Among the members of the Expert Council of the newly established television channel are Russian Presidential Economic Advisor Andrey Illarionov, Senior Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia Tatyana Paramonova and President of the Russian TV Academy Vladimir Pozner. The Co-Chairmen of the Council are Scientific Supervisor of the Higher School of Economics Yevgheny Yasin and Executive Chairman of Barclays Capital Hans-Joerg Rudloff.

RBC TV is a fully-owned subsidiary of the RBC Information Systems joint-stock company.

"In Many Ways Business Is Information"

This phrase that economist Yevgheny Yasin began his speech with at a press conference devoted to the launching of RBC TV can hardly be argued with. In order to make a wise business decision any company seeking success has to rely on the latest reliable news and correct analytical materials.

This is one side of the coin. But, of course, there is the other. Each company has to have efficient channels for delivering its information to core audiences: consumers, investors and so on. In other words, you need to cultivate in that part of the information field that will give the richest harvest.

There has been no field of this kind on Russian television until recently. Our domestic television that used to actively provide its viewers with camouflaged advertising presented in the form of economic news during the difficult period of establishing capitalism in our country, now devotes minimum time to business news. In addition, they only cover business news when major scandals occur. But times have changed. It becomes impossible to live and follow jungle rules now. Russian business has passed the stage of adolescence and is doing its best to follow new rules that are natural for a mature and civilized market.

Dominic Gualtieri, the Head of the Equities Department of Alfa Bank said: "I think that the creation of RBC TV is a natural stage in the development of the Russian market. More and more various Russian companies appear, their structure gets more complicated. There is also a growing demand for deep coverage of the latest market events. That is why I consider this event an extremely important achievement."

Occupy A Niche

TV specialists say that the strengthening of the position of specialized, niche TV (including business channels and exotic channels aimed for pets) is among the most important tendencies in world television. The West saw the first business television as early as in the 80's. Now it's Russia's turn.

Vladimir Pozner, the President of the Russian TV Academy said: "A business television channel may have a very serious audience, may be, not a big one, but very powerful. This niche has not been occupied in Russia yet. But the one who takes the place first, normally, becomes the winner."

How Steel Was Hardened

"For example, we explained to them how steel is hardened," - General Director of RBC TV Artyom Inutin mentioned talking about the way TV employees were trained for business television. The thing is that RBC TV had to build a unique team of TV journalists: professionals in industrial manufacturing, hi-tech, finances, and investments, in other words, everything that fits the word "modern economy." A special educational program was elaborated on for analysts from the Russian information agency RosBusinessConsulting specializing in different spheres to share their knowledge with new colleagues. Judging by the way they look on screen, they managed it right.

In general, employees of RBC TV (over 500 people) can be divided into three groups. First of all, these are TV specialists who came from other Russian television channels to join RBC TV. Secondly, these are people from the "inside" of the economy, who possess of a practical experience. Thirdly, these are journalists and analysts of RosBusinessConsulting, who have been working on the business information market for over ten years.

Integration of these three groups into a single professional team is one of the urgent tasks that RBC TV had to solve. There were also many other important tasks. It is good to remember the establishment of a cutting-edge television complex, learning the technology of live broadcasting using remote cameras installed at premises of major government institutions, banks and exchanges.

Less than a year has passed since the beginning of creating the first Russian business television until the launching of RBC TV. Pioneers from RBC (by the way, the average age of the company's employees is 27 years) completed the project of the century within a record period of time.

The West Will Help Us

RBC TV managed to establish partnership relations with the world leading television channels CNN and CNBC.

CNN provides its Russian partner with direct broadcastings from sites and international news blocks prepared in 39 branch offices of the company.

Maggie Eales, the Senior Vice President of CNN said: "We are glad that CNN news became available to Russian viewers through RBC TV. A cooperation agreement with RBC is an important step for CNN. We think that we have chosen a promising partner on a rapidly developing market."

Programs of CNBC business television that RBC TV has broadcasting rights to, cover and analyze events on the US, European and Asian markets.

Rick Cotton, the President and Managing Director of CNBC Europe was quoted as saying: "We are happy to work with partners representing a country that shows fast growth and becomes a center of business and commerce. We intend to help RBC TV develop as a source of business information and understand that RBC TV pushes the economic development of Russia."

RBC TV also cooperates with other major foreign television companies and information agencies, such as Reuters, APTN, German-based NTV and Deutsche Welle.

What's On

RBC TV decided not to re-invent the wheel and took the practice of their western colleagues as an example. However, the Russian channel has some important differences.

Firstly, western business TV channels can be either news-oriented (e.g. Bloomberg) or analytical (e.g. CNBC), while RBC TV is a news and analytical channel, thus combining these two broadcasting concepts.

Secondly, the coverage of stock market events is the basic priority for western channels. It is well-known that the Russian stock market, to put it mildly, is too underdeveloped to become the focus of attention for a business TV channel. Moreover, the course of stock trading is followed only by a limited audience. Therefore, RBC TV is aiming at an even distribution of its airtime among all events that are important to businesses and the economy.

Every 30 minutes RBC TV will present news programs focusing, naturally, on the economy along with the most important events on other topics. The program Morning of a Businessperson will be aired every weekday at 9:15 a.m. This program consists of several blocks, including Russian and foreign press reviews, high-tech and automotive news, City Sites & Activities and Business Style programs. The program Markets spotlights the opening, continuation and closing of trading sessions in Russia and the USA. Sphere of Interests dwells on interactions between businesses and culture, In Focus is devoted to unique business ideas and VIP is a program about success formulas. The names of two other programs, Capital and World Business, speak for themselves. The program Dialog offers interviews with experts on macroeconomic topics, and the Intrigue of the Day covers top events of a day. Another program, From the Very Beginning, aired every Friday, is a sort of a cross-questioning of the program's guest by two anchors.

New Channel's Audience

The RBC TV concept provides 3 prime-time periods, in the morning (7:30 .m. to 9:30 a.m.), during the day (12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.) and in the evening (7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.). During the day, RBC TV is watched by people who need the latest business news as one of their key business tools (e.g. financiers, analysts, brokers, employees of investments companies and so on). In the morning and in the evening, however, the TV audience expands significantly joined by all people who want to keep up with the latest events in the world economy. It is important that the audience of economic mass media sources increases impressively during extraordinary events. The scandal around YUKOS is a fresh example and the 1998 default is the most vivid one.

According to estimates of the Comcon rating agency, the potential audience of RBC TV is 12 to 14 million people. The TV channel expects its audience to reach 7 to 8 million by the end of this year and reach 12 million by the end of the next year.

RBC TV is broadcasted through satellite channels (NTVplus and Kosmos-TV), cable networks (Comcor-TV and Divo-TV) and regional broadcasters, as the channel is planned to cover all cities with a population of 1 million people or more and in cities with high incomes. In addition, RBC TV programs can be watched on the Internet.

The TV channel's expansion strategy targets the covering of the most economically active, and correspondingly, the most solvent audience. RBC referred to data from the Russian State Statistics Committing that 10 percent of the Russian population earns one third of the entire income. "These will be the people who will form the core audience of RBC TV," RBC Chairman of the Board German Kaplun was quoted as saying. "For us, it is much more profitable to broadcast RBC TV in elite accommodation blocks than in (aged economy-class) five-storied houses," one of the channels top managers stressed.

Financial Matters

The setting up of a TV channel is an expensive undertaking. Investments in RBC TV totaled about $23m, with three fourths of the investments coming from RBC's own funds and the remaining funds from attracted investments. The channel's founders expect it to break even by the end of the second year of broadcasting and to be paid back in three and a half years.

The only source of RBC TV revenues is advertising. The emergence of a new TV channel opens an attractive opportunity to such advertisers as auditing, investment and consulting companies along with producers of premium-class goods, as RBC TV viewers are potential consumers of such goods. By its launch date, RBC TV has already had about $2.7m in revenues from advertising and it expects another $500,000 before the end of this year.

And What About The Internet?

Consumers link the RBC brand, in the first place, to the Internet. "The Russian Internet business audience has been our audience for a long time already," RBC General Director Yury Rovensky was quoted a saying. "The launch of RBC TV enables us to provide business and analytical information to an even larger number of people. Both the new and the "old" information channels will be integrated into a unified information space creating a synergy effect."

Yury Rovensky is certain that RBC TV is a project of national scale that will help improve the image of Russian businesses abroad, promote entrepreneurship activity and growth in the middle class. Valery Draganov, the Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Budget and Taxes, thinks that RBC TV will raise the intellectual level of the domestic elite and the whole society in general. In any event, the launch of a business TV channel is a really important landmark in the domestic economic development.