Television in Russia

Television is the most popular medium in Russia, with 74% of the population watching national television channels routinely and 59% routinely watching regional channels.^[1] There are 6,700 television channels in total.^[2] Before going digital television, 3 channels have a nationwide outreach (over 90% coverage of the Russian territory): Channel One, Russia-1 and NTV.^[3]

History

Between 1941 and 1945 all television broadcasts in the nation were interrupted because of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. During these early years, most television programs were about life in the Soviet Union, cultural activities and sports.

In 1956 a second national television channel was established. This initial expansion of activity encompassed mostly the city of Moscow, but to a lesser extent also Leningrad, the Urals, Siberia and the Ukrainian SSR. Each republic, area or region had its own television station.

In the 1970s and 1980s, television become the preeminent mass medium. In 1988 approximately 75 million households owned television sets, and an estimated 93 percent of the population watched television. Moscow, the base from which most of the television stations broadcast, transmitted some 90 percent of the country's programs, with the help of more than 350 stations and nearly 1,400 relay facilities.

Updating the television in the Soviet Union, the release of its censorship by the Central Committee, began with the proclamation at the XXVII Congress of the new General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's new political course of the party in relation to the country. Chairman of the Radio and Television was Alexander Aksenov.

In 1991, the Soviet era Gosteleradio state system included six national television channels, 52 stations in the former Soviet republics and 78 regional stations in the Russian Federation.

Today, there are about 15,000 transmitters in the country. Development of domestic digital TV transmitters, led within "Multichannel" research program, had already been finished. New domestic digital transmitters have been developed and installed in Nizhniy Novgorod and Saint Petersburg in 2001–2002.

Legislation

The Russian Constitution was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993. Article 29 "On the Rights and Freedoms of the Person and Citizen" establishes the universal right to freedom of thought and opinion, freedom of expression of beliefs and convictions, and freedom to seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information. This right can be limited only by law and only "in the interests of protecting the Constitution, morality, health, rights and lawful interests of other persons, or for the defence of the country and national security". According to the Constitution, only the law can limit freedom of speech and establish limits for its expression. The fundamental piece of media-specific federal legislation is the Law on Mass Media, which was passed on 27 December 1991 and took effect on 13 February 1992.

The law reinforces the freedom of information and the unacceptability of censorship. It also contains provisions regulating the founding, ownership and use of mass media, and dissemination of information. The law regulates relations between mass media and citizens and/or organisations, determines the rights and obligations of journalists and establishes responsibility for violations of mass media-related laws. The Law on Mass Media allows private broadcasting and limits the rights of foreign individuals to found mass media in Russia.

Satellite television

The first Soviet communication satellite, called Molniya, was launched in 1965. By November, 1967 the national system of satellite television, called Orbita was deployed. The system consisted of 3 highly elliptical Molniya satellites, with Moscow-based ground uplink facilities and about 20 downlink stations, located in cities and towns of remote regions of Siberia and the Far East. Each station had a 12-meter receiving parabolic antenna and transmitters for re-broadcasting TV signals to local householders.

However, a large part of the Soviet central regions were still not covered by transponders of Molniya satellites. By 1976 Soviet engineers developed a relatively simple and inexpensive system of satellite television (especially for Central and Northern Siberia). It included geostationary satellites called Ekran equipped with powerful 300-watt UHF transponders, a broadcasting uplink station and various simple receiving stations located in various towns and villages of Siberia. The typical receiving station, also called Ekran, included a home-use analog satellite receiver equipped with a simple Yagi-Uda antenna. Later, Ekran satellites were replaced by more advanced Ekran-M series satellites.

In 1979 Soviet engineers developed the Moskva (or Moscow) system of broadcasting and delivering of TV signals via satellites. New types of geostationary communication satellites, called Gorizont, were launched. They were equipped with powerful onboard transponders, so the size of the receiving station's parabolic antennas were reduced to 4 and 2.5 meters (in comparison to the early 12- meter dishes of the standard orbital downlink stations).

By 1989 an improved version of the Moskva system, called Moskva Global'naya, (or Moscow Global) was introduced. The system included a few geostationary Gorizont and Express type communication satellites. TV signals from Moscow Global's satellites could be received in any country on the planet except Canada and the Northwest USA.

Modern Russian satellite broadcasting services are based on powerful geostationary satellite buses such as Gals (satellite), Ekspress, USP and Eutelsat which provide a large quantity of free-to-air television channels to millions of householders. Pay-TV is growing in popularity amongst Russian TV viewers. The NTV Russia news company, owned by Gazprom, broadcasts the NTV Plus package to 560,000 households, reaching over 1.5 million viewers.^[4]

Six out of these seven satellites are new vehicles. Four belong to the "Express-AM" family (sent into orbit in 2003-2005), and two to the "Express-A" family (sent into orbit in 2000-2002). SESC also uses the centre for TV/Radio signal compression standard along with the formation of data transport flows as per the MPEG-2/DVB standard, which ensures the formation of standardized signal packages from federal TV/radio channels.

By May 2013, of the 53 million TV homes in Russia, 24% were equipped for Direct-to-Home satellite reception, making satellite the country's leading platform for digital television. The number of satellite homes across Russia continues to grow, increasing by 25% between 2011 and 2013 from 8 million to 12.6 million. 10% of these homes receive signals from more than one satellite position, taking the total number of antennas to 13.8 million.^[5]

Cable television

Cable television was introduced in the 2000s, and grew significantly in the early 2010s. Cable operators began upgrading their networks to DVB-C and adding new services such as video on demand, catch-up-TV and others. In 2012, cable television accounted for more than half of all pay-TV subscribers (58%).^[6] Most of Pay-TV channels were closed due to 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine due to the fact that they were non-Government owned.

Distribution of the terrestrial channels

The distribution of the terrestrial channels is the task of the Unitary Enterprise Russian Satellite Communications Company, which has 11 satellites, and the Federal Unitary Enterprise "Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Network" serving 14,478 TV transmitters in Russia (90.9% of the total number). TV and radio channels are broadcast through the terrestrial satellite communications complexes owned by the Russian Satellite Communications Company at teleports located in Medvezhy Ozera (Russian: Медвежьи озера), Vladimir and Dubna, which ensure the transmission of channels to all five time zones in Russia via the space vehicles of RTRN.

Digital broadcasting

Different alternatives were considered in the process of preparing proposals on shifting the country to digital broadcasting (thematic discussions began in the early 2000s), but the Ministry of IT and Communication decided to focus solely on terrestrial broadcasting as the method of digital TV implementation.^[7] In Russia, the first legal act to set the standards for the digital transition was the Government Resolution No. 1700-r of 29 November 2007, which approved a Concept Paper for the Development of TV and Radio Broadcasting in the Russian Federation in 2008–2015. This document was elaborated by the high-level Governmental Commission on Development of TV and Radio Broadcasting originally headed by Dmitry Medvedev in his capacity as first vice-chair of the government.^[8]

Beginning

In December 2005, a project was launched to create a digital television network in the Republic of Mordovia, where the DVB-T standard will be utilised. The project objective was to ensure for the population, the possibility of receiving a large (up to 10) number of TV channels and several radio stations in the stereo broadcasting mode and in the digital DVB-T standard. The project was implemented by OJSC "Volga Telecom" (a subsidiary of OJSC "Sviazinvest") with support from the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communication of Russia, the Ministry of Culture, the National Association of TV Broadcasters and administration of the Republic of Mordovia.^[9]

The transition of terrestrial TV from analogue into digital format (in DVB-T standard) has been announced as a government priority in Russia and identified in the document Concept of TV Broadcasting Development in the Russian Federation within 2008–2015. The main positive factor in the introduction of terrestrial TV broadcasting in the DVB-T standard, according to the opinion of market players, has been the approval of a TV broadcasting development framework in the Russian Federation for 2008-2015 (approved by resolution of the RF Government # 1700-p, dated 29 November 2007).^[10]

The total investment in the transition of terrestrial TV from analogue to digital format is expected to be Euro 10 billion during the period 2008–2015.^{[citation needed]}

The main factors which have a high positive influence upon the rates of terrestrial DTV introduction tend to be general political and macroeconomic factors. Commercial factors do not have a significant influence upon rates of introduction of digital standards for terrestrial broadcasting. Cable television would gain the largest financial benefits from the introduction of digital television.^{[citation needed]}

On 10 May during Sviaz-Expocomm – 2011, the 23rd International Exhibition of Information Technologies and Communication Services in Moscow, Russia's national telecommunications operator Svyazinvest, together with Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network signed a cooperation agreement to organize the terrestrial transmission of digital content to the RRBN transmitters across the country, thus enabling the broadcasting of eight federal TV channels (Channel One, Russia 1, Russia 24, Russia 2, Russia K, Channel 5, NTV, Karusel) and one local channel, the latter to be transmitted as a "multiplex" channel on one of the main digital channels.^[11]

In June 2011 DVB-T2 tests got under way in Moscow. In July 2011 The Russian government commission on the development of TV and radio broadcasting, has supported the Communications and Mass Media Ministry's suggestion to roll out DVB-T2 test zones, the government's press service has announced.^[12]

In September 2011 a governmental commission had approved the use of the DVB-T2 standard for the development of digital terrestrial TV in Russia, as proposed by the Ministry of Communications. The digital terrestrial TV network is currently being tested out in the Tver region. According to the plan, new regional networks will be deployed under the DVB-T2 standard and existing DVB-T networks will be upgraded to the new standard^[13]

Internet TV

Russian TV is available to many expatriates living abroad, via the internet. There are several OTT service providers, which are targeted on Russian and Ukrainian expatriates in the United States and Canada.^[14]

List of channels

This is a list of television channels that broadcast in Russia. Full list of channels

Terrestrial Nationwide Digital Broadcasting Program

First Multiplex

Channels
Channel	Name	Certificate of Broadcast	Date of first digital Broadcast	Frame
ch. 1	Channel One	77 — 50252 07.06.2012	2012	16:9
ch. 2	Russia-1	77 — 76122 24.06.2019	2012
ch. 3	Match TV	77 — 63590 02.11.2015	2015
ch. 4	NTV	77 — 62736 18.08.2015	2012
ch. 5	Channel Five - Petersburgh	77 — 71806 08.12.2017
ch. 6	Russia-K	77 — 48107 30.12.2011
ch. 7	Russia-24	77 — 48108 30.12.2011
ch. 8	Carousel	77 — 51992 11.12.2012
ch. 9	Public Channel	77 — 78997 15.09.2020	2013
ch. 10	TV Centre - Moscow	77 — 62849 20.08.2015	2014

Radio networks
Position	Name
RN1	Vesti FM
RN2	Radio Mayak
RN3	Radio Rossii

Second Multiplex

Channels
Channel	Name	Certificate of Broadcast	Date of first digital Broadcast	Frame
ch. 11	REN TV	77 — 66270 01.07.2016	2013	16:9
ch. 12	Spas	77 — 74808 11.01.2019	2014
ch. 13	STS	77 — 72433 05.03.2018	2013
ch. 14	Domashny	77 — 71389 01.11.2017	2013
ch. 15	TV-3	77 — 71695 23.11.2017	2014
ch. 16	Friday!	77 — 71810 13.12.2017	2015
ch. 17	Zvezda	77 — 61865 18.05.2015	2013
ch. 18	MIR	77 — 48753 22.02.2012
ch. 19	TNT	77 — 71680 23.11.2017
ch. 20	Muz-TV	77 — 65731 20.05.2016

State-owned

Name	Themes	Owner	Established	Broadcast area	Broadcast technology	Website
Russia 1		VGTRK	1991	Nationwide	Terrestrial	russia.tv
Russia K			1997			tvkultura.ru
Russia 24			2006			www.vesti.ru
Carousel		Channel One Russia and VGTRK	2010			www.karusel-tv.ru
TV Centre	News, entertainment, educational, sports	Moscow Media	1997	Nationwide+	Terrestrial	tvc.ru
Moskva 24			2011	Moscow	Terrestrial	www.m24.ru
Moskva Doverie			2016	Moscow	Cable	www.doverie-tv.ru
360			2014	Moscow, Moscow Oblast	Terrestrial	www.360tv.ru
360 - Moscow News			2018	Moscow, Moscow Oblast	Cable	www.360tv.ru
Star - of Military Honor		Ministry of Defence	2005			tvzvezda.ru
RT (group of channels)		TV-Novosti	2005			rt.com
Public Channel		Russian government	2013	Nationwide	Terrestrial	www.otr-online.ru
Mir		10 states from CIS	1992			mir24.tv
Channel One Russia		Russian government (34.23%), VTB Bank (32.89%), National Media Group (19.46%), Sogaz (13.42%)	1995	Nationwide	Terrestrial	www.1tv.ru
NTV		Gazprom Media (Gazprombank)	1993	Nationwide	Terrestrial	www.ntv.ru
Match TV			2015			matchtv.ru
TNT			1998			tnt-online.ru
TV3			1994			tv3.ru
Friday!			2013			friday.ru
Saturday!			2017			subbota.tv
TNT4			2016			tnt4.tnt-online.ru
2x2	Entertainment (animation)		1989	Nationwide	Terrestrial	2x2tv.ru
TNT Music			2016			tntmusic.ru
CTC TV	Entertainment	CTC Media (National Media Group)	1996		Terrestrial & Cable	http://ctc.ru/
Domashniy ("Home channel")	Family entertainment		2005	Nationwide		http://domashniy.ru/
Che			2015			http://chetv.ru/
CTC Love			2014			http://ctclove.ru/
CTC Kids			2018			http://ctckids.ru/

Private

Name	Themes	Owner	Established	Broadcast area	Broadcast technology	Website
3ABN Russia	Religion (Adventist)	Three Angels Broadcasting Network	1992	International	Satellite?	http://3angels.ru/
Channel Five - Petersburgh		National Media Group (72.43%), Sergey Rudnov (18.3%), Government of Saint-Petersburg (6.27%), Sogaz (3%)	1938	Regional	Terrestrial	http://5-tv.ru/
Channel Five - Petersburgh			1938	Nationwide	Satellite	http://5-tv.ru/
REN TV	News & entertainment	National Media Group (82%), Sogaz (18%)	1997	Commonwealth of Independent States	Terrestrial	http://ren.tv/
Izvestia		National Media Group	2017		Cable	http://iz.ru/
78		National Media Group (25%), Sergey Rudnov (75%)	2017		Cable	http://78.ru/
Muz-TV		Media-1^[15]	1996			http://muz-tv.ru/
U			2012			http://u-tv.ru/
Solntse	Family entertainment		2022	Nationwide		http://sun-tv.ru/
SPAS		Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate	2006			www.spastv.ru
RBC TV	24/7 News	ESN	2003	Nationwide	?	http://tv.rbc.ru/
Multimania		Voxell Baltic	2006			http://www.multimania.tv
Kinomania		Voxell Baltic	2005			http://www.kinomania.tv
BRIDGE TV (music channel)		SAFMAR Media/Bridge Media Group	2005			http://bridgetv.ru/en/
Russian Travel Guide		RTG Corp.	2009			http://www.rtgtv.com/
BRIDGE TV Russian Hit		SAFMAR Media/Bridge Media Group	2010			http://rusongtv.ru/en/
BRIDGE TV Hits		SAFMAR Media/Bridge Media Group	2013			http://dangetv.ru/en/
Europa plus TV		EMG (European Media Group)	2011			http://www.europaplus.tv/
Ru.TV		RMG (Russian Media Group)	2006			http://www.ru.tv/
O₂TV		private investors	2004			http://o2tv.biz/en
RTVi		Rostec	2002			http://www.rtvi.ru/english.html
Nostalgiya		Veriselintel	2004			http://www.nostalgiatv.ru
Jivi!		Red Media (Gazprom-Media)	2008			http://www.jv.ru
Mosfilm Golden Collection		VGTRK & Mosfilm	2020			http://www.mosfilmgold.ru
Kuhnya TV		Red Media (Gazprom-Media)	2007			http://www.kuhnyatv.ru/
Eda		Pi-Stolet LLC	2011			http://www.tveda.ru/
Evrokino		Strim	2008			http://www.eurokino.tv
Avto Plus		Red Media (Gazprom-Media)	2006			http://www.autoplustv.com/
KVN TV			2016			http://www.kvn.ru/tv
Boks TV			2014			http://www.boxingtv.ru/
Vremya		Channel One Russia	2005			http://www.vremya.tv
Pobeda			2019			http://www.pobeda.tv
Dom Kino			2005			http://www.domkino.tv
Gulli Girl		Groupe M6	2016			http://www.gulli.ru
Zee TV Russia		Red Media (Gazprom-Media)	1992			http://www.zee-tv.ru
TiJi Russia		Groupe M6	2009			http://www.tiji.ru
Chanson TV		Mediamart	2006			http://www.shanson.tv
O!		Channel One Russia	2017			http://www.kanal-o.ru

Discontinued

Name	Owner	Established	Closed
Ostankino 4	RSTRC Ostankino	1991	1993
Ostankino 1	RSTRC Ostankino	1991	1995
Rossiyskiye University	Media Most and VGTRK	1993	1996
AMTV	Maraton-TV and Moskva-Revyu	1994	1996
MTK	Government of Moscow	1989	1997
Channel 24	Kosmos-TV	1994	1999
TeleExpo	Moskomimuschestvo and MosExpo	1995	2001
AST/Prometey AST	AST, Gazprom	1995	2002
TV6	MIBC (Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation) (Since 1999 - Boris Berezovsky and Lukoil-Garant)	1993	2002
TVS	Media-Sotsium	2002	2003
M1	Mediainvest	1994	2005
Jetix	Jetix Europe	2005	2010
Jetix Play	Jetix Europe	2005
Hallmark Channel	Universal Networks International	1999
Bibigon	VGTRK	2007
Seven TV	UTH Russia	2000	2011
Diva Universal	NBCUniversal International Networks	2010	2014
Universal Channel		2007	2015
E!		2014
Russia 2	VGTRK	2003
NTV Plus channels	NTV Plus	1996	2016
A-One	private investors	2005	2016
AMC	AMC Networks International Central Europe	2014	2019
Sony Sci-Fi	Sony Pictures Television Inc.	2007	2021
Sony Channel		2009
Sony Turbo		2012
TV Rain	Natalia Sindeeva	2010	2022
Eurosport 1	Warner Bros. Discovery	1996
Discovery Channel Russia		1998
Animal Planet		2006
Cartoon Network		2009
TLC Russia		2011
Boomerang Russia		2013
DTX		2016
Discovery Ultra		2020
JimJam	AMC Networks International Central Europe	2008
MTV Russia	Paramount	1998
Nickelodeon Russia		1998
Nick Jr. Russia		2011
Paramount Comedy (Russia)		2012
Nicktoons Russia		2018
National Geographic	The Walt Disney Company	1997
National Geographic Wild		2007
BabyTV
Fox Russia
Fox Life Russia		2008
Disney Channel		2011
TV1000	Viasat World	2003	2023
Viasat Explorer		2003
Viasat History		2004
TV1000 Russkoe Kino		2005
Viasat Sport East		2006
TV1000 Action East		2008
ViP Serial
Viasat Nature		2010
ViP Comedy		2012
ViP Premiere
ViP Megahit

Most-viewed channels

Weekly viewing shares, 8 – 14 April 2024:^[16]

Position	Channel	Group	Share of total viewing, age 4+ (%)
1	Thematical TV channels		16.9
2	Russia 1	VGTRK (state-owned)	16.0
3	NTV	Gazprom-Media (Gazprombank, state-owned)	8.6
4	Channel One	Government of Russia (34.23%), VTB Bank (32.89%), National Media Group (19.46%), Sogaz (13.42%)	7.7
5	Channel Five	National Media Group (72.43%), Sergey Rudnov (18.3%), Government of Saint-Petersburg (6.27%), Sogaz (3%)	6.8
6	REN TV	National Media Group (82%), Sogaz (18%)	5.6
7	TV Center	Moscow Media (state-owned)	4.4
8	Domashny	National Media Group	4.0
9	TNT	Gazprom-Media (Gazprombank, state-owned)	3.8
8	CTC	National Media Group	3.2
11	Russia 24	VGTRK (state-owned)	2.6

References

^ Oates, p.128
^ Broadcast media Archived 9 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine CIA World Factbook
^ "19.8 Coverage by TV broadcasting". Federal Statistics Service. 2008.
^ "Broadband TV News | Central and East Europe | Home". Broadbandtvnews.com. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
^ "Russia's leading satellite TV neighbourhood at 36° East reaches record audience and prepares for new growth" (PDF). Eutelsat Communications. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
^ Robert Briel (25 February 2013). "Pay-TV in Russia to reach 74% in 2017". Broadband TV News. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
^ HDTV and the Transition to Digital Broadcasting: Understanding New Television Technologies, Philip J. Cianci
^ Concept of development of TV and radio broadcasting in Russian Federation in 2008-2015 (Концепция развития телерадиовещания в Российской Федерации на 2008 — 2015 годы)
^ "Groteck Co., Ltd for the European Audiovisual Observatory". Archived from the original on 31 March 2009.
^ The European Audiovisual Observatory
^ Rostelecom’s backbone network to transmit digital TV content across Russia
^ "News - DVB". dvb.org. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
^ Russian govt approves DVB-T2 standard, 26 September 2011, DVB Worldwide
^ "Russian TV Company". Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
^ "группа компаний медиа1" [Media-1 Group of Companies]. Media-1.com (in Russian). Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
^ "Рейтинги". mediascope.net.