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]

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.[9]

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.[10]

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).[11]

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.

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.

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.[12]

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.[13]

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[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
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
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 ThemesOwnerEstablished Broadcast area Broadcast technologyWebsite
Russia 1 VGTRK1991 Nationwide Terrestrialrussia.tv
Russia K 1997 tvkultura.ru
Russia 24 2006 www.vesti.ru
Carousel Channel One Russia and VGTRK2010 www.karusel-tv.ru
TV Centre News, entertainment, educational, sports Moscow Media1997 Nationwide+ Terrestrialtvc.ru
Moskva 24 2011 Moscow Terrestrialwww.m24.ru
Moskva Doverie 2016 Moscow Cablewww.doverie-tv.ru
360 2014 Moscow, Moscow Oblast Terrestrialwww.360tv.ru
360 - Moscow News 2018 Moscow, Moscow Oblast Cablewww.360tv.ru
Star - of Military Honor Ministry of Defence2005 tvzvezda.ru
RT (group of channels) TV-Novosti rt.com
Public Channel Russian government2013 Nationwide Terrestrialwww.otr-online.ru
Mir 10 states from CIS1992 mir24.tv
Channel One Russia Russian government (34.23%), VTB Bank (32.89%), National Media Group (19.46%), Sogaz (13.42%)1995 Nationwide Terrestrialwww.1tv.ru
NTV Gazprom Media (Gazprombank)1993 Nationwide Terrestrialwww.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 & Cablehttp://ctc.ru/
Domashniy ("Home channel") Family entertainment2005 Nationwide http://domashniy.ru/
Che 2015 http://chetv.ru/
CTC Love 2014 http://ctclove.ru/
CTC Kids 2018 http://ctckids.ru/

Private

Name ThemesOwnerEstablished Broadcast area Broadcast technologyWebsite
3ABN Russia Religion (Adventist) Three Angels Broadcasting Network1992 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%) 1938RegionalTerrestrial http://5-tv.ru/
NationwideSatellite
REN TV News & entertainment National Media Group (82%), Sogaz (18%)1997 Commonwealth of Independent States Terrestrialhttp://ren.tv/
Izvestia National Media Group2017 Cablehttp://iz.ru/
78 National Media Group (25%), Sergey Rudnov (75%)2017 Cablehttp://78.ru/
Muz-TV Media-1[15]1996 http://muz-tv.ru/
U 2012 http://u-tv.ru/
Solntse Family entertainment2022 Nationwide http://sun-tv.ru/
SPAS Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate2006 www.spastv.ru
RBC TV 24/7 NewsESN2003 Nationwide ? http://tv.rbc.ru/
Multimania Voxell Baltic2006 http://www.multimania.tv
Kinomania 2005 http://www.kinomania.tv
BRIDGE TV (music channel) SAFMAR Media/Bridge Media Group2005 http://bridgetv.ru/en/
Russian Travel Guide RTG Corp.2009 http://www.rtgtv.com/
BRIDGE TV Russian Hit SAFMAR Media/Bridge Media Group2010 http://rusongtv.ru/en/
BRIDGE TV Hits 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 investors2004 http://o2tv.biz/en
RTVi Rostec2002 http://www.rtvi.ru/english.html
Nostalgiya Veriselintel2004 http://www.nostalgiatv.ru
Jivi! Red Media (Gazprom-Media)2008 http://www.jv.ru
Mosfilm Golden Collection VGTRK & Mosfilm2020 http://www.mosfilmgold.ru
Kuhnya TV Red Media (Gazprom-Media)2007 http://www.kuhnyatv.ru/
Eda Pi-Stolet LLC2011 http://www.tveda.ru/
Evrokino Strim2008 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 Russia2005 http://www.vremya.tv
Pobeda 2019 http://www.pobeda.tv
Dom Kino 2005 http://www.domkino.tv
Gulli Girl Groupe M62016 http://www.gulli.ru
Zee TV Russia Red Media (Gazprom-Media)1992 http://www.zee-tv.ru
TiJi Russia Groupe M62009 http://www.tiji.ru
Chanson TV Mediamart2006 http://www.shanson.tv
O! Channel One Russia2017 http://www.kanal-o.ru

Discontinued

NameOwnerEstablishedClosed
Ostankino 4 RSTRC Ostankino19911993
Ostankino 11995
Rossiyskiye UniversityMedia Most and VGTRK19931996
AMTVMaraton-TV and Moskva-Revyu1994
MTKGovernment of Moscow19891997
Channel 24Kosmos-TV19941999
TeleExpoMoskomimuschestvo and MosExpo19952001
AST/Prometey ASTAST, Gazprom2002
TV6MIBC (Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation)
(Since 1999 - Boris Berezovsky and Lukoil-Garant)
1993
TVSMedia-Sotsium20022003
M1Mediainvest19942005
Jetix Jetix Europe 2005 2010
Jetix Play
Hallmark Channel Universal Networks International 1999
BibigonVGTRK2007
Seven TVUTH Russia20002011
Diva Universal NBCUniversal International Networks 2010 2014
Universal Channel 2007 2015
E! 2014
Russia 2VGTRK2003
NTV Plus channelsNTV Plus19962016
A-Oneprivate investors2005
AMC AMC Networks International Central Europe 2014 2019
Sony Sci-Fi Sony Pictures Television Inc. 2007 2021
Sony Channel 2009
Sony Turbo 2012
TV RainNatalia Sindeeva20102022
Eurosport 1 Warner Bros. Discovery1996
Discovery Channel Russia1998
Animal Planet2006
Cartoon Network2009
TLC Russia2011
Boomerang Russia2013
DTX 2016
Discovery Ultra 2020
JimJam AMC Networks International Central Europe 2008
MTV Russia Paramount 1998
Nickelodeon Russia
Nick Jr. Russia2011
Paramount Comedy (Russia)2012
Nicktoons Russia2018
National Geographic The Walt Disney Company 1997
National Geographic Wild 2007
BabyTV
Fox Russia
Fox Life Russia2008
Disney Channel2011
TV1000Viasat World20032023
Viasat Explorer
Viasat History2004
TV1000 Russkoe Kino2005
Viasat Sport East2006
TV1000 Action East2008
ViP Serial
Viasat Nature2010
ViP Comedy2012
ViP Premiere
ViP Megahit

Most-viewed channels

Weekly viewing shares, 9 – 15 October 2023:[16]

PositionChannelGroupShare of total viewing, age 4+ (%)
1Thematical TV channels18.2
2Russia 1VGTRK (state-owned)15.3
3NTVGazprom-Media (Gazprombank, state-owned)9.7
4Channel OneGovernment of Russia (34.23%), VTB Bank (32.89%), National Media Group (19.46%), Sogaz (13.42%)8.1
5Channel FiveNational Media Group (72.43%), Sergey Rudnov (18.3%), Government of Saint-Petersburg (6.27%), Sogaz (3%)6.3
6REN TVNational Media Group (82%), Sogaz (18%)5.3
7TV CenterMoscow Media (state-owned)4.6
8CTCNational Media Group4.3
9DomashnyNational Media Group4.0
10TNTGazprom-Media (Gazprombank, state-owned)3.9
11Russia 24VGTRK (state-owned)2.5

See also

References

  1. Oates, p.128
  2. Broadcast media Archived 9 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine CIA World Factbook
  3. "19.8 Coverage by TV broadcasting". Federal Statistics Service. 2008.
  4. "Broadband TV News | Central and East Europe | Home". Broadbandtvnews.com. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
  5. "Russia's leading satellite TV neighbourhood at 36° East reaches record audience and prepares for new growth" (PDF). Eutelsat Communications. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
  6. Robert Briel (25 February 2013). "Pay-TV in Russia to reach 74% in 2017". Broadband TV News. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  7. HDTV and the Transition to Digital Broadcasting: Understanding New Television Technologies, Philip J. Cianci
  8. Concept of development of TV and radio broadcasting in Russian Federation in 2008-2015 (Концепция развития телерадиовещания в Российской Федерации на 2008 — 2015 годы)
  9. "Russian TV Company". Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
  10. "Groteck Co., Ltd for the European Audiovisual Observatory". Archived from the original on 31 March 2009.
  11. The European Audiovisual Observatory
  12. Rostelecom’s backbone network to transmit digital TV content across Russia
  13. "News - DVB". dvb.org. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  14. Russian govt approves DVB-T2 standard, 26 September 2011, DVB Worldwide
  15. "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.
  16. "Рейтинги". mediascope.net.

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