Russian Business Channel Inks Contract with Eutelsat
PARIS, France, March 27, 2007 - Satnews Daily - Eutelsat Communications and Russian business TV channel RBC-TV have signed a five year contract for lease of capacity on the Hot Bird-6 television satellite for free-to-air broadcasting over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
This new agreement supports RBC-TV's international expansion beyond its core markets of Russia and neighboring countries in order to reach Russian-speaking audiences further afield who follow economic, financial, business and political events in Russia, and are interested in a Russian perspective on international business.
Three years since its launch on Eutelsat's W4 satellite, RBC-TV has built strong overage in Russia's main cities, as well as the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Baltic countries. Over these regions, the channel is available via the leading TV platforms on Eutelsat's W4 satellite, as well as via cable networks and the Internet, and has built an estimated audience of almost 53 million viewers, who are mainly corporate and financial executives, state officials and business opinion leaders.
"We regard boosting the channel's target viewership as a priority task in terms of RBC TV's development," General director of RBC TV Artyom Inutin said. "Until recently, our technical opportunities have been restricted to transmitting the TV signal throughout Russia, the CIS and Baltic states. We have launched transmission through two additional satellites, including Hot Bird-6, which gives us the opportunity to reach the whole of Russia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa".
"By joining the line-up of close to 500 free-to-air channels broadcasting from the HOT Bird neighborhood, Russia's first business channel RBC-TV will be able to reach new target audiences including Russian-speaking residents of foreign countries and foreign citizens who speak Russian and have business ties with Russia", said Olivier Millies-Lacroix, Eutelsat's commercial director. "The launch of RBC-TV on Hot Bird-6 will also enable Russian tourists keep abreast with the latest news in Russian business and economics when travelling abroad. We are delighted to have been selected to support their international expansion on Hot Bird-6, three years after their launch on our W4 satellite over Russia and neighboring countries".
RBC-TV business television channel went live in September 2003 and has been the only source of business news on Russian TV. Round-the-clock RBC-TV covers economic, financial and relevant political events in Russia and abroad, features analytical reviews, forecasts and expert commentaries, interviews with top businessmen and politicians, business press reviews, as well as special programs looking into current issues for Russian business.
Over 90 percent of the information featured on RBC-TV is dedicated to events in Russia and produced in-house. RBC-TV has a professional team of 650 specialists, including 40 analysts that came from commercial banks and financial companies. RBC television channel broadcasts information on the course of trade on global markets, as well as business and economic news produced by the CNBC and CNN television channels, which are the partners of RBC TV.
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL, ISIN code: FR0010221234) is the holding company of Eutelsat S.A. With capacity on 23 satellites that provide coverage over the entire European continent, as well as the Middle East, Africa, India and significant parts of Asia and the Americas, Eutelsat is one of the world's three leading satellite operators in terms of revenues. In 2006, Eutelsat's satellites broadcast over 2,400 television channels and 1,000 radio stations.
More than 1,000 channels broadcast via its Hot Bird video neighborhood which serves over 120 million cable and satellite homes in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The group's satellites also serve a wide range of fixed and mobile telecommunications services, TV contribution markets, corporate networks, and broadband markets for Internet service providers and for transport, maritime and in-flight markets.
