One sixth

## Yuliy Gusman, “Theme”

ORT received a rich inheritance: we had a great era... It is here that a new great style is created - luxurious holidays, a little hidden irony, old songs about the main thing. Three years - on the first. About Public Russian Television - Maria Shubina .

There are banners all over the city: “Three years – the first.” ORT is advertising a concert dedicated to its third anniversary. How strange, however, ORT is only three years old. The channel is younger than RTR, NTV and TV-6. Three years ago, the organizers of ORT inherited a rich inheritance: a broadcast network throughout the country, the “Time” program at nine o’clock, “Good night, kids,” “What? Where? When?”, “The Obvious is the Incredible”, “In the Animal World” and “The Film Travelers Club”; huge debts of State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company "Ostankino", openly prosperous "jeans" (hidden advertising, paid for in cash). The company was corporatized, a moratorium on advertising was declared, and they began to clear

Augean stables. The beginning was tragic: on March 2, 1995, the newly appointed general director, Vladislav Listyev, was killed. The whole country was shocked by the loss for several weeks - “The View”, “Field of Miracles”, “Theme” and “Rush Hour” were watched by everyone. A few months later, a thirty-four-year-old candidate of biological sciences, the then fashionable host of the Matador program, Konstantin Ernst, was invited to create a new channel. Matador has always had a lot of pathos, little irony and great, sometimes justified, claims to creating a new style of television. What is needed for a national channel, which is required to be official and popular at the same time, to please everyone. Positivity and ideology. When Ernst came to ORT, the operating scheme for the future channel had already been chosen. ORT itself did not intend to produce anything other than news. The airwaves were to be filled with programs that were purchased from independent companies. The channel's staff was thus reduced many times over. Now a complete abandonment of production is considered a mistake - and therefore some - a small - part of the programs began to be made directly on the channel, and the concepts were jointly spelled out in great detail with the producers. From the very beginning, VID was and remains the largest of the manufacturers. Having its own studios, technical staff and an arsenal of TV stars, VID was able to become a strategic partner of ORT. His programs occupy almost the entire prime time - evening time. In October 1995, a new channel schedule appeared - viewers were missing almost half of the programs: “Understand Me”, “Under the Sign of the Zodiac”, “Gol”, “Kinopanorama”, “Kinopravda”, “Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov”, “Versions”, “Meetings with Alexander Solzhenitsyn”. Some, however, were revived on different channels and are still alive. On New Year's Day 1996, for the first time it became clear what exactly Konstantin Ernst was doing on the channel - he

I was filming a New Year's program. New Year's Eve, when almost everyone sits in front of the screens waiting for the Blue Light, is considered a competition on television. Three series of “Old Songs about the Main Thing” win by a wide margin for three years in a row. Ernst guessed this method and offered his own recipe: cover version, young popular singers and old favorite films plus quality shooting. “Our main viewer is a normal, slightly conservative person, not prone to shocking behavior,” the general producer repeats in all interviews. Nostalgia is typical for this audience. Including nostalgia for ideology, for the idea that unites the nation. And the “Russian Project” appeared on ORT. Between “Field of Miracles” and “Play Accordion, Darling,” famous actors from the screen convinced that everything would be fine, that they loved us, and most importantly, that we were together.

The vast majority of TV stars are the property of the first button

Dmitry Krylov, “Unlucky Notes”

How is ORT different from Ostankino? It’s very different, but it’s hard for me to praise ORT. I can only say that after 15 years of working on Channel One, I developed a strong attachment to it. And one cannot fail to take into account that today ORT has the largest audience.

What are you watching on TV? NTV news programs and all kinds of documentaries, especially foreign ones: series on ORT and NTV, the program “Dialogues about Animals” (RTR) and “Travel” (TV-6). If I'm interested in a hero, then I watch Rush Hour (ORT). I began to watch with interest the new series of Andrei Karaulov’s programs on NTV. Good feature films on any channels.

Do you watch yourself on air? I watch, but not out of narcissism: the “live” broadcast after working on the program allows me to analyze mistakes and successes.

Could you work on another channel?

I have already combined work on ORT with the “Telescope” program on RTR and am ready to cooperate with other channels.

What do you wish ORT for its third anniversary?

This is from the realm of unfulfilled wishes. I would like ORT to turn more to the interests of viewers, and not to its commercial objectives. Nowadays everything is aimed at earning the maximum amount of money, and this is to the detriment of quality.

Vitaly Wulf, “Silver Ball”

What are you watching on TV? I constantly watch the news: “Results”, “Time”. Also Radzinsky’s programs, always Leonid Filatov’s “To Be Remembered” programs, I really love Posner’s programs, when I have time, I watch the Culture channel.

Do you watch yourself on air? Yes, always.

Could you work on another channel? I haven't tried it, never thought about it.

What would you wish for ORT on its third birthday? Probably, it’s my patriotism that speaks to me, but I like my channel, the ORT channel. I would like to wish it to be more diverse and take into account the tastes of not only everyone, but also each individual. So that every person can find in it something of their own, something that interests them.

Valdis Pelsh, “Guess the Melody”, “These Funny Animals”

What are you watching on TV? Any good feature films.

Do you watch yourself on air? Sometimes.

Could you work on another channel? Probably yes. But no one has offered me one yet.

What would you wish for ORT on its third birthday? Safely overcome all the “childhood diseases”, develop and mature.

MAKERS: ATV | VIEW | UNIX | TVR | Game | Class | Lyra | Bemi Date | AMIC | Relish | Cascade TV | ACC-TV | Lyra | L-club Telefabrika | Ren TV | ARS | ORT-sport | Peasant Gazette

What would you wish for ORT on its third birthday?

April 1, 1998 marks the third anniversary of the ORT channel. And let, in contrast to the motto of this day: “On the First of April - I don’t trust anyone,” the ORT channel is trusted by all those who watch it - and there are millions of them around the world. I wish happiness, health and creative longevity to all my colleagues at ORT.

ORT went on air on the first frequency channel on April 1, 1995, filling the airwaves of the state television and radio company Ostankino, which had been broadcasting on this channel since 1991. ORT was created as a closed joint stock company, where 51% of the shares were owned by the state, 49% by commercial organizations. ORT staff number is about 1,500 people. Broadcasting to all regions of Russia and to most neighboring countries. Broadcasting period is 18.5 hours daily. The total potential audience of the channel in Russia is 98.8% of the population (that is, approximately 146 million people), as well as 95% of the population of the CIS countries. Thus, the total potential audience of ORT is 275 million television viewers.

ORT topic

► those on the screen are the same people as in front of it. A year later, something more touching and family-friendly was needed - “The Russian Project” was replaced, as it were, by children’s cartoons “Tales of the New Russia.” In 1997, there was another relapse - the participation and failure of Alla Pugacheva at the Eurovision Song Contest, which the whole of Russia watched at the same time as Europe. By the way, Arina Sharapova was recognized there as the most beautiful Venus.

The “Time” program was returned to ORT along with Sviridov’s music and even recently loudly celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Time has really moved forward, and the shadow of Brezhnev’s eyebrows no longer hangs over everyone, as during perestroika. They never came up with a better name for the country's main news, especially since everyone still habitually called the nine o'clock news that way. The vast majority of TV stars are the property of the first button. Most of them - Alexander Maslyakov, Vladimir Pozner, Yuri Senkevich, Vladimir Voroshilov - were inherited by ORT. Perhaps only Valdis Pelsh is an absolute masterpiece of ORT. What has improved radically on ORT is the screening of films. All television channels advertise their films in the same way as they started three years ago on ORT. The velvety, hoarse voices of Konstantin Ernst and Anatoly Maximov, who voice the videos themselves, are copied. It all started in October of ninety-five. Then they showed Nikita Mikhalkov’s film “Burnt by the Sun”. 55% - more than half of the country's eyes - watched ORT. They did not retreat from their positions, gradually proving that films can be watched not only, and now not so much on NTV. Now few people remember and few people care that “Field of Miracles”, “Morning Star” and

“Rush Hour” was made for Ostankino, and “Guess the Melody,” “Smak,” “The Man in the Mask,” and “To Be Remembered” were made for ORT. They organically merged into something single. This is the first one. This is ORT. Advertising strives to influence the majority of the audience. Hateful TV commercials make us believe in a very positive, very average and, in fact, very boring image of you and me - saving money on dishwashing detergent and powder, worrying about teeth and dandruff, loving coffee, Wrigley Spermint and pets - burghers whose wives are always ready to feed big and small hungry wolves, and children, talking with their friends, stretch their mouths in a sweet smile with the proverb “Moscow was not built in a day.” The ORT channel also appeals to the majority and treats us – the average – a little more respectfully. He believes in our erudition, riddles words, melodies and habits of animals. He shows us good, often fresh, and occasionally, at night - for the aesthetes among us - even intelligent or beautiful cinema. He considers us people with memories of the past and reminds us of the stars and events of past years. True, he considers us not very young. But they are emotional – ORT tells a lot of touching women’s stories.

Perhaps we are like that - in any case, ORT has the highest ratings every week, and, for better or worse, other channels follow it. There is, however, an irrational, but registered all over the world, effect of the first button. The person sitting on the first button always has a handicap of 5 points. The first television channel, regardless of content, is watched the most. WE HAVE THREE YEARS IN THE FIRST – ORT.■

Good luck ORT

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