RT CHANNEL With its first channel launched in December 2005, the RT network now consists of seven TV channels broadcasting news, current affairs, and documentary content, digital platforms in six languages, and a global video news agency Ruptly. In Moscow, RT Studios broadcast 24/7 in English, Spanish and Arabic, while RT America broadcasts from its own Washington, DC studios, and RT UK airs from London. Today, RT has a global audience of 70 million viewers weekly in the 38 of the more than 100+ countries where RT programming is available. RT creates news with an edge by inspiring viewers to question more. It covers stories overlooked by the mainstream media, provides alternative perspectives on major global events, and acquaints international audiences with a Russian viewpoint. RT is the winner of the 2013 Monte Carlo TV Festival Award for best 24-hour newscast for its reporting on the Chelyabinsk meteor crash. In 2010, RT became the first Russian TV channel to be nominated for the prestigious International Emmy Awards for News. The network received its second news nomination in 2012 for its coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement, its third for reporting on the hunger strike of Guantanamo detainees, and this past year its fourth a record for a Russian channel for its special coverage of the 70th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly. RT America was also honored with its first Daytime Emmy Award nomination for On Contact host Chris Hedges in the category Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host in 2017. RT is the #1 TV news network on YouTube, with more than 4.5 billion views and 4 million subscribers, demonstrating the channels high level of engagement with global audiences. Described by YouTube as astonishing and one of the, if not the biggest news provider on YouTube worldwide, RT s dominance on YouTube was its first step towards delivering news in multimedia formats. Since then, RT has integrated a variety of social media platforms and technologies into its news reporting to further enhance its content and more deeply engage with its audiences. RT was among the first TV news broadcasters to embrace 360 degree technology for news production, launching a fully dedicated 360 news app in 2015 and embarking on regular news production in the format throughout 2016 to this day. In November 2016, RT brought the world the first-ever panoramic video of Earth from space.
PEOPLE & PERSONALITIES RT programming features some of the most dynamic personalities in news today. Politicking with Larry King, launched in 2013, is a political talk show created exclusively for RT and hosted by an award-winning, internationally-renowned broadcasting legend. Twice a week, Larry King and his guests from high-profile politicians to activists, to cultural personalities and other influential news-makers debate the most important and controversial stories of the day from the United States and around the world. Continuing a career that spans more than two decades, renowned, Peabody award-winning veteran journalist Ed Shultz joined RT in 2016 to headline RT America s primetime nightly news broadcast. Monday through Friday, Ed one of America s most respected and trusted journalists puts the spotlight on the issues that matter most to working Americans on News with Ed Schultz. Partnership with King and Shultz continues RT s trend of high-profile collaborations that include The Keiser Report, hosted by acclaimed journalist and former stockbroker Max Keiser, On Contact hosted by Emmy-nominated, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, and Watching the Hawks with Tyrel Ventura, Sean Stone and Tabetha Wallace, who, along with their guests, are your eyes and ears on the ground in the world of media, politics and pop culture.
ON the SCENE OF the 2016 DUMA ELECTIONS In the heart of Moscow city, RT broke down the Russian political scene for viewers around the globe during live coverage of this past September s Duma ( parliamentary ) elections with presenter Neil Harvey. Correspondent Murad Gazdiev navigated the complexities of the multi-party system in Russia by drawing parallels between the increasingly popular right-wing Liberal Democratic party of Russia and its European and American counterparts, such as Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. No topic was off-limits, as Neil Harvey examined fears of election rigging, brawls at polling sites, and Russia s progressively more conservative leanings, while correspondents Egor Piskunov and Ilya Petrenko added insight into the hopes of the opposition parties and what the final breakdown of representation in the Duma means for the future of Russia. Of course, an element of humor was not forgotten as RT used fresh and innovative designs to showcase the amusing to the ridiculous at polling stations across the country. Pokemon and Game of Thrones themed polling booths led to a significant number of votes for Pikachu and Jon Snow, and politicians stretched their creativity when it came time to develop advertisements for the average voter. RT reported it all from the serious to the absurd to shed light on Russia s political system.
RT TEAM ON the SCENE of 2016 DUMA ELECTIONS Neil Harvey is a news anchor for RT International. He is the winner of a BBC news scholarship, co-winner of a Royal Television Society award for best newcomer in UK regional news, and a finalist for BBC Talent. Neil has worked across the full range of the channel s output from sports to entertainment to news broadcasts. After broadcasting live from both the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008, he co-presented RT s evening news show, Prime Time Russia, for five years. In 2014, he became an international news anchor, reporting on numerous global breaking news stories. Murad Gazdiev is a news correspondent at RT International specializing in conflicts and global unrest. From the trenches and ruins of Eastern Ukraine, to the cratered streets of Syria s Aleppo and migrant riots in Europe s refugee camps, Murad can often be found broadcasting from the epicenters of the world s most conflict-ridden places. Ilya Petrenko is a Moscow-based correspondent for RT International. As a Russian-speaking reporter, Ilya often contributes to RT Russian, the network s Russian language digital platforms. In addition to covering a wide scope of stories in Moscow, he regularly travels around the world to report on news ranging from armed conflicts and violent civil unrest to high-profile political and economic summits. Egor Piskunov has been with RT for over ten years, starting as the ticker editor in the newsroom and working his way up to become a news correspondent in the field and an anchor in the studio. Egor s been to sixty two countries, covering different conflicts, including South Ossetia, Kyrgyzstan, and Libya. He has also reported on major political events, including the Russia-EU summit in the Far East, the G20 summit in Australia and the 70th UN General Assembly in New York.
RT #1 on YOUTUBE with more than 4 bln VIEWS MOSCOW, OCTOBER 27, 2016 The total number of views on RT s YouTube channels has exceeded four billion. RT is the undisputed leader among international TV news channels, including CNN and BBC. In total, the aggregate number of views on RT s channels is more than twice as many as that of CNN, three times as many as Euronews, and more than seven times as many as the BBC s YouTube news channels combined. The future of media is inextricably linked to the Internet. Once you fall behind in this field, it s difficult to catch up. From the very beginning, RT has focused on developing its digital platforms, and this has been the key to our success, noted RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. For many years now, RT has been the unrivalled leader on YouTube, the most popular video hosting platform in the world. Four billion views is a new milestone, and we are aiming to raise the bar even further, said Kirill Karnovich-Valua, RT s Head of Online Projects. In 2007, RT became the first Russian TV channel to post video content on YouTube, as soon as the platform became available in Russia. In 2011, an RT clip was recognized as the most popular news video of the year on the platform. The following year, the Pew Research Center named RT the top news producer on YouTube. In 2013, RT became the first TV news channel in the world to hit one billion views on the platform. In March 2017, RT was short-listed for Best Overall YouTube Presence at the Shorty Awards, the premiere awards competition honoring excellence in social media.
FIRST-EVER 360 FOOTAGE of EARTH from SPACE MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 21, 2016 RT presented unprecedented, never-before-seen 360-degree footage of planet Earth shot from the Cupola module of the International Space Station, as part of its special Space 360 project. Space 360 is a collaboration between RT, the Roscosmos state corporation, and Energia Rocket and Space Corporation. Russian cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko took viewers on a panoramic tour of the Cupola module, revealing a breathtaking, unparalleled view of planet Earth from outer space, while pointing out the external parts of the ISS in the process. The module has seven viewing ports and serves as an observation point from which the Earth, space, and the ISS crew on spacewalks can be observed. Look at this gorgeous view that we can enjoy from the Cupola. Now you will be able to watch this with your own eyes, seeing things just as we see them. You can appreciate the beauty of our planet, says Borisenko. RT s Space 360 introduced the very first panoramic video shot from the ISS. In just a matter of days, it was viewed more than 3.5 million times on YouTube and Facebook. For the first time in history, we have made a 360-degree video in a zero-gravity environment, says Eduard Chizhikov, who heads up RT s 360 video production. Our task was to combine education and entertainment. We have been greatly aided in this by our host, cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko, who introduces the audience to the various aspects of life on-board the ISS. RT s Space 360 videos are available online in six languages (English, Russian, Spanish, French, German, and Arabic) and the RT360 mobile app (Google Play, App Store, Oculus Store). RT was among the first news channels to embrace 360 technology for news production and is currently Samsung VR s top content provider in Russia.
RT BECOMES A FIVE-TIME EMMY FINALIST MOSCOW, MARCH 30, 2017 RT has become Russia s first broadcaster to be nominated five times for an Emmy award. In August, 2016, RT s series of reports covering the 70th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly garnered the channel its fourth International Emmy nomination for News. Meanwhile, RT America s host Chris Hedges of On Contact earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host. It s great to see Emmy voters appreciate the diversity of perspectives, which has been the RT trademark for many years, said Margarita Simonya, RT s Editor-in-Chief, of RT s international nomination. It is especially telling that RT s recognized work covered the story a seminal UN assembly that embodied the same mission. RT provided continuous live coverage out of a pop-up studio set up inside the UN headquarters. Using 3D graphics to show how the legendary UN building came to be erected on the bank of the East River previously occupied by a slaughterhouse, RT brought to life a comprehensive story of the event, as well as an exclusive view from behind the podium. Receiving its first national Emmy nomination, RT America s host Chris Hedges competes for the title of Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host. Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Chris Hedges joined RT in 2016 to host On Contact, a show that engages voices outside the mainstream media to examine U.S. foreign policy, changing economic realities and the state of civil liberties in American society. The press, even the for-profit press, has a responsibility to work for the common good. It has been the goal of On Contact to fill this vacuum on the airwaves and give a voice to those the dominant power structures have sought to marginalize or silence, says Hedges.
RT JOINS UNITED NATIONS IN-HOUSE BROADCAST MOSCOW, JANUARY 17, 2017 Since January 2017, RT is among an exclusive set of news channels that broadcast within the UN HQ internal information network. RT Director General Alexey Nikolov and UN Under-Secretary-General Cristina Gallach attended the agreement ceremony on January 17, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Today, in the era of sweeping, global political changes, it is more important than ever to consider different points of view to compare them, to draw independent conclusions, said Alexey Nikolov. In just 11 years, RT has won worldwide acclaim as a go-to source for alternative perspectives on current events. The diversity of views and stories that we represent is the embodiment of the fundamental principles of the Organization. We are pleased that the voice of RT will now be heard at the UN level. United Nations Under-Secretary-General Cristina Gallach welcomed RT s addition to the network, The UN in-house television network is viewed by UN staff members, delegates and visiting officials. It is home to a diverse range of news broadcasting networks from around the world and in different languages, and today welcomes the newest member to the network. RT was awarded a silver medal at the UNCA Awards, organized by the UN Correspondents Association, for its coverage of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.
RT WINS PEOPLE S VOICE AWARD WEBBY RT TAKES 7 LOVIE AWARDS September 2016 18 NOMS at NY FESTIVALS SURPASSING CNN AND BBC February 2017 H2W0E April 2016