MOSCOW, OCTOBER 27, 2016 – The total number of views on RT’s YouTube channels has exceeded four billion. RT is the absolute leader among international TV news channels, including CNN and BBC.
In total, the aggregate number of views on RT’s channels is more than twice as many as that of CNN, three times as many as Euronews, and more than seven times as many as the BBC’s YouTube news channels combined.
“The future of media is inextricably linked to the Internet. Once you fall behind in this field, it’s difficult to catch up. From the very beginning, RT has focused on developing its digital platforms, and this has been the key to our success,” noted RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
“For many years now, RT has been the unrivalled leader on YouTube, the most popular video hosting platform in the world. Four billion views is a new milestone, and we are aiming to raise the bar even further,” said Kirill Karnovich-Valua, RT’s Head of Online Projects.
In 2007, RT became the first Russian TV channel to post video content on YouTube, as soon as the platform became available in Russia. In 2011, an RT clip was recognized as the most popular news video of the year on the platform. The following year, the Pew Research Center named RT the top news producer on YouTube. In 2013, RT became the first TV news channel in the world to hit one billion views on the portal.
In September 2016, RT took home seven Lovie Awards, the pan-European awards honoring online excellence. Last April, it received the People’s Voice Award at the prestigious Webby Awards, garnering user acclaim ahead of BBC News, ABC News, NBC Nightly News, and the New York Times.