All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company
 | |
| Russian Television and Radio | |
Native name | Всероссийская государственная телевизионная и радиовещательная компания |
| Formerly | Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) |
| Company type | Unitary enterprise |
| Industry | Mass media |
| Founded | 14 July 1990 |
| Headquarters | , Russia |
Areas served | Russia (parts of Kazakhstan, Poland, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Korea, Japan, Finland, Georgia, China, Azerbaijan) |
Key people | Oleg Dobrodeev |
| Services | Television, radio, internet |
| Revenue | $518 million (2017[1]) |
| $363 million (2017[1]) | |
| $45.9 million (2017[1]) | |
| Total assets | $868 million (2017[1]) |
| Total equity | $29 million (2017[1]) |
| Owner | Federal Government of Russia |
| Website | vgtrk www |
The All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR),[a][2] also known as Russia Television and Radio,[b] is a national state-owned broadcaster which operates a number of television and radio channels. The company, founded in 1990, is based in Moscow.[3]
Nationwide TV and radio channels are broadcast from Moscow via regional transmitters of the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network, the terrestrial transmitting network. TV and radio channels are also delivered to the regions via satellite. Regional programs are produced in regional production studios. RTR's holding company reported in December 2019 that it broadcast in 54 languages (including from local studios), up from 53 languages in 2010;[4][5] this includes the moribund Nganasan language, spoken by less than 1,000 traditionally semi-nomadic people.[6]
RTR has been accused of spreading propaganda and disinformation, inciting discord and hate during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[7][8] Unlike RT, it is primarily produced for internal consumption. RTR Planeta its international TV channel, was banned in Lithuania in 2015.[9]
History
The first Congress of People's Deputies adopted a 21 June 1990 resolution about RSFSR media, instructing the Council of Ministers to establish the Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of the RSFSR. On 14 July, a Presidium of the Supreme Soviet decree established the Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. Former Moscow News deputy editor Oleg Poptsov, was appointed its first chairman.
On 10 December of that year, Radio Rossii began broadcasting on a channel with the All Union First Programme of All-Union Radio, Radio Mayak and the Third All-Union Radio. RTR began broadcasting television to Russia on 13 May 1991 (after a postponement from March of that year) along with Programme Two. Soviet Central Television's Programme Two closed on 16 September, and RTR took over the remaining airtime. In April 1992, the Russian Universities TV channel began to replace Programme Four.
Russian Universities broadcast with the Ostankino 4th channel from 6 July 1992 to 16 January 1994, and after 17 January 1994 with NTV as part of RTR. In accordance with a February 1996 presidential decree by Boris Yeltsin, Oleg Poptsov stepped down fas RTR chairman and Eduard Sagalaev was appointed president of RTR's Moscow Independent Broadcasting Corporation (MIBC) TV6 Moscow. On 11 November 1996, Russian Universities ceased broadcasting and its airtime passed to NTV. The first satellite TV networks, RTR TV network, Meteor Sports and Meteor Cinema, were launched. On 1 November 1997, RTR began broadcasting a VHF "Culture" educational channel.
A presidential decree "On Improvement of Public Electronic Media" was drafted on 8 May 1998, based on information about RTR. Based on the decree, the Voice of Russia was created and Radio Mayak was reorganised. In 2001 RTR acquired a 1.8-percent stake in Euronews, which launched a Russian-language service later that year.
RTR began test broadcasts of the Kino-TV channel on 3 December 2012. It began test broadcasts of the high-definition TV channel Rossiya HD on 17 December, which began regular broadcasting on 29 December 2012. On 29 January 2013, at the Annual Exhibition and Forum of Television and Telecommunications (CSTB-2013), RTR announced the merger of eleven digital channels as "Digital TV". It includes documentary, sports, entertainment, and movie channels: History, Russian-HD, My Planet, Nauka 2.0, Sport, Sport-1-HD, The Fighting Club, Russian Roman, Russian Bestseller, Strana, and Sarafan. RTR began the Russian Detective channel (with domestic detective films and TV series) on 4 April 2014, and launched the international entertainment channel IQ HD eleven days later.
As a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union expressed plans for a ban of three of the largest Russian state-run broadcasters in early May of that year. The BBC reported that they were thought to include the RTR channels Rossiya and RTR Planeta. The EU had already banned RT and Sputnik, which broadcast in English, German, and Spanish. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced in June that the one million residents of the occupied southern Ukrainian Kherson region would receive RTR channels instead of Ukrainian television.[10] On 8 July, the company was sanctioned by Canada.[11]
In March 2022, YouTube blocked its RTR channel along with other Russian state media outlets.[12][13] YouTube blocked several dozen other RTR channels in February 2024, including regional channels in Rostov-on-Don, Pskov, Vologda, and Murmansk.[14][15]
Operations
RTR owns and operates five national television stations, an international television network, twenty narrowcast digital television channels, five radio stations, over eighty regional broadcasters, and a multimedia online streaming platform.[16] It joined the European Broadcasting Union in 1993. The EBU suspended RTR's membership on 1 March 2022 after the company announced its intention to withdraw from the union when the EBU excluded RTR from the Eurovision Song Contest as a consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[17] The suspension was made indefinite at a meeting of the EBU executive board on 26 May of that year.[18]
Television
- Russia-1 (Россия-1) — entertainment, news (formerly Russia, RTR-1, RTR and RTV)
- Russia-24 (Россия-24) — news channel (formerly Vesti)
- Russia-K (Россия-К) — cultural programming (formerly Culture, RTR-2)
- Carousel (Карусель) — children's and youth programming (jointly with Channel One Russia)
International channel
- RTR-Planeta (РТР-Планета)
Narrowcasting
- Moscow 24 (Москва 24) — News channel broadcasting in Moscow (formerly Stolitsa and TV Tsentr Stolitsa)
- 360° Moscow Region
- 20 channels as Digital Television
Former channels
- Bibigon (Бибигон) – a channel for children and adolescents, replaced by Carousel in 2010
- Russia-2 (Россия-2) — sports, entertainment, documentaries, movies, news; acquired by Gazprom-Media in 2015 and replaced by Match TV
Radio
- Radio Kultura (Радио Культура) – cultural radio, broadcast terrestrially on 91.6 FM in Moscow
- Radio Mayak (Радио Маяк) – general entertainment, current affairs, and adult contemporary music
- Radio Rossii (Радио России) – talk radio and regional programming
- Radio Yunost (Радио Юность) – Online only; formerly European and American pop music, now Soviet-era music
- Vesti FM (Вести FM) – news
Online
- Smotrim (Смотрим) – Multimedia online platform with content from all of VGTRK's assets
Regional
In addition to its Moscow operations, RTR includes 83 regional production studios and five territorial branches, providing coverage to every region in Russia.[19] Regional production studios are located in the capital or administrative center of federal subjects, regardless of population.[20] At a minimum, each produces regional newscasts during regional variation in the schedule of Russia-1. Many produce supplementary regional newscasts for insertion into Russia-24, regional news magazines and current-affairs programming for insertion into Russia-1 and Russia-24. Most also produce regional radio newscasts and cultural programming for insertion into Radio Rossyia and—less commonly—Radio Mayak, Vesti FM or both. Some have their own television channels and radio stations, broadcasting additional regional programming. Territorial branches produce their own television and radio newscasts (generally in lesser quantities than regional production studios) for broadcast to a smaller area. Each territorial branch is subordinate to a nearby regional production studio.
The names of regional production studios and territorial branches begin with GTRK,[c] and are grouped by federal district in the table.[21] Each territorial branch is grouped with its associated regional production studio.
Notes
- ^ Russian: Федеральное государственное унитарное предприятие «Всероссийская государственная телевизионная и радиовещательная компания» (ВГТРК), romanized: Federal'noye gosudarstvennoye unitarnoye predpriyatiye «Vserossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya televizionnaya i radioveshchatel'naya kompaniya» (VGTRK)
- ^ Russian: Россия. Телевидение и радио, romanized: Rossiya. Televideniye i radio
- ^ Russian: Государственная телевизионная и радиовещательная компания (ГТРК), romanized: Gosudarstvennaya televizionnaya i radioveshchatelnaya kompaniya (GTRK), lit. 'State television and radio broadcasting company'
- ^ a b c d e Territorial branch
- ^ a b c d Internationally recognized as part of Ukraine
References
- ^ a b c d e "ВГТРК" (in Russian). Retrieved 7 March 2026.
- ^ "RTR is the largest media corporation in Russia". Сетевое издание "Государственный Интернет-Канал "Россия".
- ^ "The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company". bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ "Многоязыкое вещание: как ВГТРК сохраняет разнообразие национальных культур в России – Новости на Вести.ru".
- ^ Romanova, Alisa (4 November 2010). "Трудности перевода". Национальное вещание ВГТРК. BECTИ.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2 June 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
- ^ "Многоязыкое вещание: как ВГТРК сохраняет разнообразие национальных культур в России – Новости на Вести.ru".
- ^ "Weapons of mass deception. Russian television propaganda in wartime". OSW Centre for Eastern Studies. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- ^ Michałowska-Kubś, Aleksandra; Kubś, Jakub (27 May 2022). "Coining lies. Kremlin spends 1.5 Billion per year to spread disinformation and propaganda". Debunk.org. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- ^ "Propaganda in demand". EUvsDisinfo. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ AFP; Tunk, Carola (21 June 2022). "Ukraine: Gesamte Region Cherson auf russisches Fernsehen umgestellt". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 21 June 2022.
- ^ "New sanctions hit Russian TV, media in crackdown on disinformation". Canada's National Observer. 8 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
- ^ "YouTube заблокировал РБК, ТАСС, каналы МИА "Россия сегодня" и ВГТРК". Kommersant (in Russian). 12 March 2022. Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "YouTube объявил о "немедленной блокировке" каналов, связанных с российскими государственными СМИ". Mediazona (in Russian). 11 March 2022. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "YouTube заблокировал несколько десятков аккаунтов ВГТРК". Радио Свобода (in Russian). 6 February 2024. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "YouTube заблокировал несколько десятков региональных каналов ВГТРК". Медиазона (in Russian). 6 February 2024. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
- ^ "О компании". ВГТРК (in Russian). Archived from the original on 1 January 2026. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
- ^ "EBU Statement on Russian Members". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). 1 March 2022. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
- ^ Butts, Tom (31 May 2022). "EBU Suspends Russian Broadcasters". TV Tech. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
- ^ Dovbysh, Olga (2 January 2019). "Commercial or public service actors? Controversies in the nature of Russia's regional mass media". Russian Journal of Communication. 11 (1): 71–87. doi:10.1080/19409419.2019.1572532. hdl:10138/304518. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
- ^ Ershov, Yuri (2013). "The Regional Dimension of Russian Broadcasting" (PDF). World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies (World of Media 2012): 163–179. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 August 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
- ^ "Регионы". ВГТРК (in Russian). Archived from the original on 3 January 2026. Retrieved 31 January 2026.
External links
Media related to VGTRK at Wikimedia Commons
- VGTRK official website (in Russian)
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