"Strana.Ru", May 22, 2002

The RBC Board of Directors decided to set up such a channel at a meeting on May 17. The new TV company will be named RBC TV. The project is scheduled to start in the first six months of 2003.

Maxim Shapiro, head of the RBC public relations department, told a Strana.Ru correspondent that RBC was planning to establish a look-alike of Bloomberg and CNBC. The middle class and business elite of Moscow and St. Petersburg is seen as the target audience. RBC believes that their new project will be interesting for professional financiers, managers of investment and insurance companies, banks and exchanges and even for stock and financial speculators. RBC will cover Russian and international economic, financial and political news as well as provide analytical reviews of various economic issues. Economic information will broadcast on RBC's channel 18 hours a day. RBC is reliant on its own content for TV programs.

The channel will broadcast via cable and satellite networks for free. Advertising is expected to be the main source of revenues. According to Maxim Shapiro, the RBC leadership intends to conduct negotiations with NTV-Plus and Cosmos-TV on including the channel into their satellite TV packages.

The company does not elaborate on how or by whom the technologies will be developed for the channel. It also does not comment on what information will display in rolling captions. But RBC promises the channel will be useful for those who are interested in the RTS, NASDAQ and DOW JONES indices.