RT, ARGENTINA REACH BROADCASTING AGREEMENT, EXPAND COOPERATION

MOSCOW, JULY 19, 2016 – RT and the government of Argentina have reached an agreement for RT Spanish to remain a part of Argentina’s national TV broadcasting network, Television Digital Abierta (TDA), which enables the channel’s free, round-the-clock broadcasting in the country. The parties have also agreed to expand their cooperation and promote a more intensive cultural and media exchange between Russia and Argentina. Earlier this year, Argentina’s State Radio and Television Society announced that RT might not be able to remain on TDA and would be available in Argentina via cable and satellite networks only.

The agreement was reached in Buenos Aires, following the meeting of Viktoria Vorontsova, the chief of RT Spanish, Fernando Lombardi, head of Argentina’s Federal System of National Media, and Alberto Ligaluppi, head of the National Directorate for Public Content. On top of keeping RT within Argentina’s national broadcasting network, the parties also agreed to exchange TV programs, promote Argentinian content in Russia, and pursue other joint projects.

"Argentinian viewers want to have access to a diverse range of news and points of view, which is why RT has become so popular in this country,” says Ms. Vorontsova. “We are very happy that we have been able to come to the kind of agreement that manages to not only keep RT on Argentine’s free national airwaves, but also enables more a substantive cooperation going forward.”

In June 2016, Argentina’s state-owned broadcasting company Radio y Televisión Argentina Sociedad del Estado (RTA SE) announced its decision to drop RT Spanish from TDA, saying that the broadcast frequency was needed for regional Argentinian broadcasters.

In October 2014, RT Spanish became the first foreign broadcaster to be carried by TDA. An agreement on Russo-Argentine media cooperation was signed during President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Buenos Aires, with then-Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner remarking that “We greatly appreciate RT’s work, as people in different countries want to see a bigger picture of what’s going on in the world.”

With RT Spanish carried by Argentina’s national broadcasting network, its programming is available to 80 percent of Argentinians. According to an independent survey by PwC for RT, Argentinian audiences show one of the highest rates of interest in foreign news sources among countries surveyed.