With its first channel launched in December 2005, the RT network now consists of three global news channels broadcasting in English, Arabic and Spanish, RT America airing from a Washington, DC studio, RT UK broadcasting from London, documentary channel RTDoc in English and Russian, online platforms in German and French, and video news agency RUPTLY. Today RT is available to over 700 million people in 100+ countries.
RT news covers the major issues of our time for viewers wishing to question more and delivers stories overlooked by the mainstream media to create news with an edge. RT provides an alternative perspective on major global events, and acquaints an international audience with the Russian viewpoint.
RT is the winner of the 2013 Monte Carlo TV Festival Award for the best 24-hour newscast. In 2010, RT became the first Russian TV channel to be nominated for the prestigious International Emmy award in the News category. The network received its second News nomination, in 2012, for its coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and its third – a record for a Russian channel – in 2014, for reporting on the hunger strike of Guantanamo detainees.
According to an Ipsos survey of TV news consumption conducted in 38 countries out of 100+ where RT broadcasts are available, 70 million people watch RT channels every week. Half of that number – 35 million – watch RT daily.*
2014 Nielsen research found that 2.8 million people in seven major US urban areas watch RT weekly. Results of a separate 2014 Nielsen study show that RT Arabic is among the top-3 most watched TV news channels in 6 Arabic countries. In Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Iraq RT Arabic is watched by 6.7 million viewers every day. According to the Ipsos Affluent Survey Europe 2015, conducted in 21 European countries among the most affluent 13% of the population in each, RT is the fastest growing pan-regional TV channel among Europe’s most affluent individuals.
In Latin America, RT is part of the national TV networks of Argentina and Venezuela; it was picked up a state-operated satellite system in Bolivia and FESCOM Association in Columbia, which includes 200 cable operators, and is soon to be available as part of Ecuador’s TV grid. RT’s programming also airs on Cuba’s and Venezuela’s national TV channels.
Online, RT is the top non-Anglo-Saxon TV news network in terms of PC audience, according to comScore. More than 3 million unique visitors access RT.com’s multilingual news content daily, per Google Analytics.
The best of RT broadcasts can be found on its YouTube channel, which became the first TV news channel in YouTube’s history to reach one BILLION views. Today, RT is the #1 TV news network on the platform for more than 3 billion viewsacross its channels.
*The study was conducted in 38 countries, with a representative samples of the total population (15 years plus), through telephone or online interviews, August-November 2015, by Ipsos, a leading global audience research company. The study was carried out in Russia, Poland, Greece, Ireland, UK, Turkey, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, India, New Zealand, Australia, Libya, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Lebanon, Tunisia, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria.