Broadcasting Oleg

The head of VGTRK is struggling with non-core assets

General Director of VGTRK Oleg Dobrodeev told senators yesterday about the prospects for television broadcasting, and also commented on cuts in the country's main television and radio broadcasting company. Telling members of the Federation Council about the costs of the reorganization that had begun in the company (it is with this that the layoffs are associated), Mr. Dobrodeev assured that it would be beneficial and promised two new TV channels, one of which would be aimed at the next generations of voters.

The head of VGTRK denied that mass layoffs had begun at the state television company. “Currently there are about 15 thousand employees in our system. The reduction is by no means massive, but, naturally, modernization is accompanied by these costs,” he explained, speaking at a meeting of the Federation Council’s commission on information policy. The reorganization, Mr. Dobrodeev recalled, was long expected and prescribed by law concerning federal state unitary enterprises. “If we had not taken measures, VGTRK would have turned into an unprofitable and unmanageable company,” he claims. According to the general director of VGTRK, the inventory of regional television and radio companies showed a “rather bizarre picture”: many had non-core assets, including car services and apiaries. Oleg Dobrodeev emphasized that during the reorganization it was possible to avoid a reduction in the volume of broadcasting of regional companies, and the Rossiya channel, having increased the share of its television audience to 24.5%, “became the leader of the Russian television market.”

However, clearly pleased with the fact that for the first time it was possible to overtake Channel One, the permanent leader since the times of the USSR, in the viewership market, Oleg Dobrodeev also highly appreciated the successes of other television projects. “Now over 60% of the Russian population has the opportunity to watch the Culture channel,” he said. The broadcasts of the sports channel, the appearance of which Mr. Dobrodeev called “one of the important life-affirming factors for the country’s population,” is now available to about 56 million Russians. Moreover, VGTRK is working to further expand its audience. And the company does this with funds received from advertising. Which, however, is denied access to some government-recognized social channels. “Advertising is not placed on Kultura and will not be placed in the future,” promised the general director of VGTRK.

However, VGTRK’s plans for the future are not limited to the three existing channels. Based on Vesti, the company plans to create a 24-hour information channel. Mr. Dobrodeev is also thinking about a special channel for children, a tender for the creation of which, according to him, the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications intends to soon announce. In addition, the RTR-Planeta channel will be developed. It is planned that from next year its signal will be available not only in Europe, the USA, Australia and North Africa, but also in Asia, and in a year it is expected to cover the whole world with its broadcast.

Irina BELASHEVA