RTVI

RTVI
Country	United States; Germany; Israel
Ownership
Owner	Ruslan Sokolov until October 2019 then Mikayel Israyelyan

RTVI (Russian Television International), more recently stylized as RTVi, is a New York-based international Russian-language privately owned television network. Its primary audiences are the Russian-speaking communities of Israel, Germany and the US. RTVI does not broadcast in Russia, but is available to the Russian audience online.

The channel studios are based in New York City, Tel Aviv, Berlin and Riga. Additional news bureaus of RTVi are located in Washington, D.C., London, Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Yerevan and Chisinau. The channel launched on 1 January 1997 as NTV International, before rebranding as RTVi in 2002.

It has special programs focused on Israeli politics and the Russian-speaking communities (for example, "This Week in Israel") in Israel and also Germany (with the program "This Week in Germany").

History

Ownership

The channel was founded in 1997 by Vladimir Gusinsky as a part of NTV channel.^[2] RTVI was owned by Russian businessman Ruslan Sokolov who bought the channel from its founder Vladimir Gusinsky in 2012. A group of Israeli private investors purchased RTVI International channel in 2017. In October 2019, the Armenia-born American Mikayel Israyelyan (Russian: Микаэль Исраелян) became the owner of the Moscow RTVI studio.^[1]

Original programming

RTVI airs daily world news, current affairs programs and family entertainment.

Distribution

RTVI broadcasts by satellite and cable in Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, Asia and Australia. RTVi's European feed is not available in Russia; however, all broadcasts are available online.

Audience

RTVI's principal audience are millions of Russian-speaking viewers outside Russia. RTVi is a major source of information, in some cases it’s the only TV channel available for Russian-speaking communities in a particular region.

Russian TV journalist Alexey Pivovarov was appointed editor-in-chief in 2016.^[3] After acquisition by Israelyan, Pivovarov remains the chief editor as of December 2019.^[1] In a most unexpected move, Israelyan tapped Russian pop superstar Sergei "Shnur" Shnurov, front-man of the mega-famous band, Leningrad, to replace Pivovarov as executive editor-in-chief beginning July 2020.

Staff

RTVi's News Director and Editor-in-Chief is Ekaterine Kotrikadze who has headed the Moscow edition since July 2019 following her return to Russia from the United States.^[1] Alexey Zyunkin joined the team in May 2012 as RTVi's Vice President of Programming and Production.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Сотников, Даниил (Sotnikov, Daniil); Чуракова, Ольга (Churakova, Olga); Баданин, Роман (Badanin, Roman); Рубина, Михаила (Rubin, Mikhail); Сурначевой, Елизаветы (Surnacheva, Elizabeth) (25 December 2019). "Друзья по особым поручениям. Рассказ о том, как Сергей Чемезов связался с либералами" [Friends on special missions. The story of how Sergey Chemezov got in touch with liberals]. Проект Медиа (Proekt) (in Russian). Retrieved 30 December 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ New owner
^ https://www.facebook.com/alexey.pivovarov.16/posts/10209055380894938

External links

[Project25122019-1] Сотников, Даниил (Sotnikov, Daniil); Чуракова, Ольга (Churakova, Olga); Баданин, Роман (Badanin, Roman); Рубина, Михаила (Rubin, Mikhail); Сурначевой, Елизаветы (Surnacheva, Elizabeth) (25 December 2019). "Друзья по особым поручениям. Рассказ о том, как Сергей Чемезов связался с либералами" [Friends on special missions. The story of how Sergey Chemezov got in touch with liberals]. Проект Медиа (Proekt) (in Russian). Retrieved 30 December 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[2] New owner

[3] ttps://www.facebook.com/alexey.pivovarov.16/posts/10209055380894938

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