With its first international channel launched in 2005, RT is now a global TV news network providing current affairs coverage, breaking stories and documentaries in ten languages: English, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Serbian, Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese and Russian, and sister multimedia news agency RUPTLY that provides livestreaming, video on demand, archive footage and broadcast services. RT is available in Chinese on popular Chinese social media platforms – Weibo, Bilibili, and Douyin, and is also present on social networks in Hindi. RT is now available to more than 800 million TV viewers in more than 100 countries around the globe.
RT creates news with an edge for viewers who want to Question More. RT covers stories overlooked by the mainstream media, provides alternative perspectives on current affairs, and acquaints international audiences with a Russian viewpoint on major global events.
RT is the only Russian TV channel to be an eleven-time Emmy finalist. The network has been nominated for International News & Current Affairs Emmy for its coverage of the humanitarian crisis in the Iraqi city of Mosul, Guantanamo Bay inmates’ hunger strike, the Occupy Wall Street protests and other stories. RT also has been shortlisted for News and Documentary Emmy Awards for its VR project ‘Lessons of Auschwitz’, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by the Soviet Army. RT America’s ‘Boom Bust’ financial show was a Daytime Emmy finalist for Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for a Live Action Program in 2020, while Pulitzer-prize laureate Chris Hedges, host of ‘On Contact with Chris Hedges,’ secured RT America its first Daytime Emmy nomination in 2017, as an Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host.
RT also holds dozens of medals from the New York Festivals for its documentary and news programming, and has been repeatedly recognized by numerous international awards competitions and media organizations, including the Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards, the Cannes Lions, the Webby Awards, the Lovies, the Shorty Awards, the Association for International Broadcasting, and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, among many others.
RT's on-air personalities of past and present include international media and public sphere figures, such as renowned broadcasting legend Larry King, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, prolific and acclaimed Indian actor, best-selling author and motivational speaker Anupam Kher, Kenya's eminent pan-Africanist and anti-colonialism activist Professor P.L.O. Lumumba, Pulitzer Prize winner and Emmy-nominated journalist Chris Hedges, the "most dangerous financial expert" Max Keiser, former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, former President of Ecuador Rafael Correa, legendary football coach José Mourinho, top American news personality Rick Sanchez, and French media icon Frédéric Taddeï, among others.
In 2016, RT filmed the first-ever 360-degree video of Earth from space, and in 2017, in collaboration with Roscosmos State Corporation and Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, presented the world with the first-ever panoramic video filmed in open space, during a spacewalk.
In 2018, RT founded the Khaled Alkhateb International Memorial Awards to honor the sacrifice of RT Arabic war correspondent Khaled Alkhateb. Khaled died while working in Syria in 2017. The awards recognize the brave journalists who report from conflict zones around the world.
Online, RT is ahead of DW, France 24 and Euronews, among other TV news networks, in terms of traffic (SimilarWeb).
In 2013, RT became the first news network to surpass one billion views on YouTube. In 2020, RT became the first TV news network in the world to hit ten billion views across its channels on YouTube. By March 2022 RT had surpassed 17 billion views and 30 million subscribers.
RT Arabic website surpasses CNN Arabic and Euronews Arabic in terms of visits (SimilarWeb).
The online audience of RT Spanish is ahead of Spanish-language websites of international news channels, including BBC, Euronews, France 24, and the Latin American channel TeleSur (SimilarWeb).
***RT is an autonomous, non-profit organization that is publicly financed from the budget of the Russian Federation. For more information, contact: press@rttv.ru.