Bukashkin Talks Russia Today’s Next Generation Growth Plans

Studio of RT International, RT’s flagship English-language news channel.

[Via Satellite 10-16-13] Russia Today (RT) is one of the key news broadcasters globally serving the needs of Russian people, both within the country and beyond. Given that it is also a key source of information for others looking to do business in Russia, RT is an important part of the overall global news broadcasting fabric and expanding the channel’s global audience is now the key challenge facing the organization.

“Right now RT’s focus is on expanding our global audience through the network’s current channels. Thanks to the switch to HD, RT can now be included in a lot more cable and satellite packages worldwide, which demand HD delivery. This allows us to reach new viewers in the markets where we are already present, as well as in new territories. As for new channels, should we decide to launch them, our new facility can certainly accommodate that kind of production,” Andrey Bukashkin, chief director, Russia Today, told Via Satellite.

The broadcaster migrated all of its channels to HD broadcast in December 2012. Today, RT’s new production facility has HD broadcasting capability for 8 simultaneous HD feeds – enough to accommodate all of the network’s current channels and potential future expansion, including new channels. The company is also looking to take advantage of OTT projects around the world. “We believe it is a promising distribution channel and we are actively working with OTT platforms. RT applications are available in the app stores of the world’s largest OTT-platforms such as Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Google TV, LG, etc. We also have plans to collaborate with the largest OTT satellite platform projects,” Bukashkin said.

The news-broadcasting environment is a competitive one, and Bukashkin admits that, in a fragmented media environment, it is a challenge to come up with new ways to engage with your audience. “Being all things to all people is rarely a successful strategy. New news media outlets are popping up practically daily, so it is important for us to concentrate on doing what we have always done best – being an alternative voice on the vast international news playing field,” he said. “We have also been quick to embrace new platforms, in particularly social media. RT was the first Russian TV channel to create a YouTube channel back in 2007. Today we are the first TV news channel ever, worldwide, to cross the billion-views mark on the platform. We’ve created an award-winning Facebook app; we’re constantly engaged with our audience through.”

The company is constantly working on ways to improve its offering. “Following a major recent revamping of our website RT now has a Russian-language section, making our content (both in text and video form) available to Russian speakers worldwide,” says Bukashkin. “This spring RT launched RUPTLY, a full-service video news agency that utilized a brand new, state of the art delivery platform to supply original video footage to a wide range of media organizations, from traditional broadcasters to online outlets. And, of course, thanks to the HD switch, RT is now expanding our reach through cable and satellite networks around the world.”

RT has grown significantly since 2005, and has had to build out its technical infrastructure to match these efforts. It has built a new technical facility that has resolved a lot of the constraints RT faced due to growing from a single-channel enterprise in 2005 to a global network with five TV channels, video agency RUPTLY, and extensive new platform presence.

“[The new facility] has room for growth thanks to more studios and larger studio space. We have introduced the Virtual Studio Manager system into our workflow. We have been able to switch to a new, massive, storage system by Hitachi and EMC,” Bukashkin said. “We also have optimized access to an expansive video archive etc. Thanks to all these advancements, the entire production process has been made more efficient, and redundancy in our production, storage and broadcast technologies ensures smooth, continuous worldwide broadcast against technical breakdowns and maintenance issues.”