Russia: RT TV CHANNEL LAUNCHES 24/7 BROADCASTING IN SPANISH

Saturday, 02 January 2010
RT news TV channel has launched its feed in Spanish for viewers across the globe via satellite. The first ever Spanish-language TV news channel operating from Russia was launched on December 28th 2009, and will be on air 24 hours daily. RT's Spanish service adds to its lineup of existing TV news feeds in English and in Arabic.

The channel broadcasts from Moscow via satellites IS9, Hispasat 1D and the satellite television system Digital+. Millions of viewers across Europe, North and South America have access to its open signal.

RT's Spanish programming takes into account the time difference for its broadcasting across various time zones and all news bulletins are run at morning or evening prime-time in Madrid, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Miami, Los Angeles and New York. RT Spanish is set to deliver news on politics, business and sports, reports on developments across the globe and in Russia, as well as important interviews and unique viewpoints, often not covered by other media worldwide.

The channel has already taken exclusive interviews with Ecuador's president Rafael Correa, Mexico's Energy Minister Georgina Kessel Martinez, flamenco celebrity Mercedes Ruiz, Cuba's jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca, human rights activist Eva Golinger and other experts and opinion-makers.

Said RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan: "We have no doubt that our feed in Spanish will reach a vast amount of viewers from the Spanish speaking audience across the globe, and will be in demand as much as our English and Arabic services. Viewers want to watch different kind of news stories, which no other media sources dare to cover. I'm sure that Latin America will gladly take our feed, and if we join the US cable network, then Spanish-speaking audience will benefit. We present news reports that are often absolutely different from the international mainstream media. Therefore, for example, in Washington, D.C., we have 6,5 times the viewers of Al-Jazeera English *** and five times – the viewers of Deutsche Welle despite their high budgets."

At present about 200 employees work in Spanish RT, including 35 journalists from Spain, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia and the USA. Among them there are well-known correspondents and presenters who worked for the largest European and Latin-American Channels such as TVE in Spain, TVN and Canal 13 in Chile, TV Azteca in Mexico, CNN Espanol and Telemundo.

Design-wise the Spanish studios utilize – for the first time in Russia - the innovative studio light panels which can change the studios layout in a few seconds. RT Spanish Channel will also rely on existing the technical resources of already operating English and Arabic channels. In November of 2009 a correspondent bureau was opened in Miami, another one is to follow soon in Buenos Aires.

The official Internet site of the Spanish RT TV channel is located at actualidad.rt.com It is a complex multimedia resource. The site users can not only watch the latest international news on video and read them, but also gain substantial information about Russia. The button "en vivo" provides access to RT live broadcast with on air quality.

The flagship RT English service was launched in December 2005 followed by its Arabic sister channel in May of 2007. In a recent report by European Commission RT was cited as an influential news source, that has a true international impact along with the CNN International and the BBC World.* In 2008 Rusiya Al-Yaum and Al-Jazeera ** were recognized as most objective in their coverage of the war in Gaza.

*According to research by the European Audiovisual Observatory at the European Commission.

** According to telephone poll of the Iraqi TV channel Ap-Rai, 40 thousand people will be questioned.

***On the research: the research was carried out in Washington and its suburbs by the Nielsen Media Research. 4574 respondents had been questioned by phone from May to July in 2009 among subscribers of the biggest operators of commercial TV (Comcast, RCN, Cox, DirecTV, Dish Network), who know about RT and have access to it along with other channels. Men and women older than 18 years old participated in the poll. During the research it was found that every day RT had six and a half times more viewers than Al Jazeera English, and every month RT had five times more viewers than Deutsche Welle for the same period.

For further information please contact Yulia Yermolina at RT's press service:

julia(at)rttv(dot)ru

+7 495 645 28 11

+7 916 900 80 29

Fuente: http://www.auto-mobi.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13408&Itemid=50

En Vivo:

http://actualidad.rt.com/mas/envivo