Ren-TV
Encyclopedia
REN TV is one of the largest private federal TV channels in Russia
. Founded by Irena Lesnevskaya and her son, Dmitry Lesnevsky
, who had been running REN TV as a production house for other national Russian television channels, it has broadcast since 1 January 1997. Its target audience is a young to middle-age city worker. Even though it focuses mostly on the audience in the 18 to 45 demographic, REN offers programming for a wide range of demographics, since the target viewer has a family and respects family values. The channel has won 13 TEFI
s awards presented by the Academy of Russian Television.
REN TV's network is a patchwork of 406 independent broadcasting companies in Russia and the CIS
. REN's signal is received in 718 towns and cities in Russia from Kaliningrad
in the West to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
in the East. It has a potential audience of 113.5 million viewers (officially 120 million viewers
) with more than 12 million of them living in Moscow city
and Moscow Oblast
(Moscow Region). REN TV works with 10 broadcaster affiliates and 19 cable operators in the CIS and Baltic states
; 181 cities can receive REN TV's signal.
By many political fringe groups REN TV is considered to be "one of the last bastions of free media" in Russia. It is the only channel up-to-date which covers the meetings of socialist and liberal groups and takes interviews from leaders of the political fringe.
. In 2005 Bertelsmann
's RTL
bought 30% of REN TV with steel maker Severstal
and oil and natural gas company Surgutneftegaz each buying 35%.
Severstal's Alexey Germanovich on 18 December 2006 ceded the chairperson of REN TV's board to Lyubov Sovershaeva, President Vladimir Putin's former deputy envoy to the North-West federal okrug and chairperson of the board at ABRos Investments, a subsidiary of St Petersburg's Russia bank. ABRos had bought a considerable stake in REN. The bank, whose chairman, Yury Kovalchuk, was a close friend of President Vladimir Putin, owned 38% of its home town's TRK Petersburg TV channel – and was likely to buy more of that company, analysts had told 19 December 2006's Kommersant-daily
. REN TV and TRK Petersburg would merge into a single media holding, though they would operate independently, industry observers had told the daily.
Russian media had reported that oil and gas group Surgutneftegaz had sold its stake in the channel to ABRos, which had increased its stake in the media company from 45% to 70%. '[T]here are indications that Bertelsmann
was interested in selling up, after about 18 months in the Russian TV market,' the broadcasting news website added.
As per the website of REN TV, RTL owns 30% and National Media Group (NMG) owns 68% of the channel.
's NTV Station. As of October 2011, Maksimovskaya was still in charge of news broadcasts on REN TV. Due to her activities, the channel remains arguably Russia's the only major TV outlet with liberal views, discussing the problem of state censorship and showing interviews with leaders of the political fringe (including Other Russia).
Prior to her departure from the channel, Romanova had told the Radio Free Europe
on 25 November 2005 that the channel's head, Alexander Ordzhonikidze had pulled two recent stories for, she felt, political reasons. One censored item had covered an investigation into Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov
's son's involvement in a road accident in which a woman died. Romanova spoken about the alleged censorship on Ekho Moskvy
radio on 23 November 2005 – and the next day Ordzhonikidze barred from entering the channel's building. A second 'banned item had been about the building in central Moscow of a US $15 million church and clock tower by Zurab Tsereteli
, the Internmational Press Institute noted in its report on 2005.
Ordzhonikidze said in an interview for Echo of Moscow
radio station that REN's news output had low ratings and management had decided to try other anchors on the evening newscasts. "Besides, it's hard for one person to anchor all the nightly newscasts every day of the week. [They] might just feel ill," he had added.
In solidarity with Romanova, several of her journalist colleagues quit the channel in December 2005. Head of news and deputy channel director, Yelena Fedorova, told Radio Liberty's Russian Service (Radio Svoboda) why she had resigned. "A lot of content-related directives have passed by me. As a journalist, I cannot put up with that, I cannot live with that," she told state news agency RIA Novosti on 5 December 2005. Editor Olga Shorina and producer Tatyana Kolokova were also planning to leave the channel because, they said, it was impossible to perform their professional duties.
-winning Vozvrashcheniye in 2003, is still a production house and has made much of the network's scheduled content, including numerous TV series:
REN also was showing purchased programming, including:
Current purchased/licensed programming:
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Founded by Irena Lesnevskaya and her son, Dmitry Lesnevsky
Dmitry Lesnevsky
Dmitry Lesnevsky is a Russian producer and entrepreneur in film, television, and online media. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Motion Picture Arts, the European Film Academy, and the Academy of Russian Television....
, who had been running REN TV as a production house for other national Russian television channels, it has broadcast since 1 January 1997. Its target audience is a young to middle-age city worker. Even though it focuses mostly on the audience in the 18 to 45 demographic, REN offers programming for a wide range of demographics, since the target viewer has a family and respects family values. The channel has won 13 TEFI
TEFI
TEFI is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors , such as television shows, notable people in the television industry, journalists, channels...
s awards presented by the Academy of Russian Television.
REN TV's network is a patchwork of 406 independent broadcasting companies in Russia and the CIS
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....
. REN's signal is received in 718 towns and cities in Russia from Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea...
in the West to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
-Demographics:Most residents are ethnic Russians, but there also exists a sizable population of Koreans. Of the 43,000 Sakhalin Koreans, half are estimated to live in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, comprising roughly 12% of the city's population...
in the East. It has a potential audience of 113.5 million viewers (officially 120 million viewers
) with more than 12 million of them living in Moscow city
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Moscow Oblast
Moscow Oblast
Moscow Oblast , or Podmoskovye , is a federal subject of Russia . Its area, at , is relatively small compared to other federal subjects, but it is one of the most densely populated regions in the country and, with the 2010 population of 7,092,941, is the second most populous federal subject...
(Moscow Region). REN TV works with 10 broadcaster affiliates and 19 cable operators in the CIS and Baltic states
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
; 181 cities can receive REN TV's signal.
By many political fringe groups REN TV is considered to be "one of the last bastions of free media" in Russia. It is the only channel up-to-date which covers the meetings of socialist and liberal groups and takes interviews from leaders of the political fringe.
Ownership
Until 1 July 2005 the channel belonged to its founder Irena Lesnevskaya and her son (30%) and the Russian utility RAO UES headed by Anatoly ChubaisAnatoly Chubais
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais is a Russian politician and business manager who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administration. From 1998 to 2008 he was the head of the state owned electrical power monopoly RAO UES. The 2004 survey by...
. In 2005 Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
's RTL
RTL Group
RTL Group is Europe's largest TV, radio and production company, and is majority-owned by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. It has 45 television and 32 radio stations in 11 countries...
bought 30% of REN TV with steel maker Severstal
Severstal
OAO Severstal Russian: Северсталь, "Northern Steel") is a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, centred in the northern city of Cherepovets. Severstal is listed on the RTS and LSE. As of 2009, it is the largest steel company in Russia according to The Metal Bulletin....
and oil and natural gas company Surgutneftegaz each buying 35%.
Severstal's Alexey Germanovich on 18 December 2006 ceded the chairperson of REN TV's board to Lyubov Sovershaeva, President Vladimir Putin's former deputy envoy to the North-West federal okrug and chairperson of the board at ABRos Investments, a subsidiary of St Petersburg's Russia bank. ABRos had bought a considerable stake in REN. The bank, whose chairman, Yury Kovalchuk, was a close friend of President Vladimir Putin, owned 38% of its home town's TRK Petersburg TV channel – and was likely to buy more of that company, analysts had told 19 December 2006's Kommersant-daily
Kommersant
Kommersant is a commerce-oriented newspaper published in Russia. , the circulation was 131,000.- History :The newspaper was initially published in 1909, and it was closed down following the Bolshevik seizure of power and the introduction of censorship in 1917.In 1989, with the onset of press...
. REN TV and TRK Petersburg would merge into a single media holding, though they would operate independently, industry observers had told the daily.
Russian media had reported that oil and gas group Surgutneftegaz had sold its stake in the channel to ABRos, which had increased its stake in the media company from 45% to 70%. '[T]here are indications that Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann AG is a multinational media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Germany. The company operates in 63 countries and employs 102,983 workers , which makes it the most international media corporation in the world. In 2008 the company reported a €16.118 billion consolidated...
was interested in selling up, after about 18 months in the Russian TV market,' the broadcasting news website added.
As per the website of REN TV, RTL owns 30% and National Media Group (NMG) owns 68% of the channel.
News coverage
In November 2005 REN TV fired Olga Romanova, the anchor of its daily 24 news flagship. Despite much publicity around the incident, her independent manner of reporting was continued by Marianna Maksimovskaya, formerly an anchor and news presenter for Vladimir GusinskyVladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....
's NTV Station. As of October 2011, Maksimovskaya was still in charge of news broadcasts on REN TV. Due to her activities, the channel remains arguably Russia's the only major TV outlet with liberal views, discussing the problem of state censorship and showing interviews with leaders of the political fringe (including Other Russia).
Prior to her departure from the channel, Romanova had told the Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
on 25 November 2005 that the channel's head, Alexander Ordzhonikidze had pulled two recent stories for, she felt, political reasons. One censored item had covered an investigation into Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov
Sergei Ivanov
Sergei Borisovich Ivanov is a Russian senior official and statesman. He was Minister of Defence from March 2001 to February 2007, Deputy Prime Minister from November 2005 to February 2007, and the First Deputy Prime Minister from February 2007 to May 2008...
's son's involvement in a road accident in which a woman died. Romanova spoken about the alleged censorship on Ekho Moskvy
Echo of Moscow
Echo of Moscow is a Russian radio station based in Moscow, broadcasting in many Russian cities, in some of the former-Soviet republics , and via the Internet, which some observers describe as "the last bastion of free media in Russia"...
radio on 23 November 2005 – and the next day Ordzhonikidze barred from entering the channel's building. A second 'banned item had been about the building in central Moscow of a US $15 million church and clock tower by Zurab Tsereteli
Zurab Tsereteli
Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli is a Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.- Life :...
, the Internmational Press Institute noted in its report on 2005.
Ordzhonikidze said in an interview for Echo of Moscow
Echo of Moscow
Echo of Moscow is a Russian radio station based in Moscow, broadcasting in many Russian cities, in some of the former-Soviet republics , and via the Internet, which some observers describe as "the last bastion of free media in Russia"...
radio station that REN's news output had low ratings and management had decided to try other anchors on the evening newscasts. "Besides, it's hard for one person to anchor all the nightly newscasts every day of the week. [They] might just feel ill," he had added.
In solidarity with Romanova, several of her journalist colleagues quit the channel in December 2005. Head of news and deputy channel director, Yelena Fedorova, told Radio Liberty's Russian Service (Radio Svoboda) why she had resigned. "A lot of content-related directives have passed by me. As a journalist, I cannot put up with that, I cannot live with that," she told state news agency RIA Novosti on 5 December 2005. Editor Olga Shorina and producer Tatyana Kolokova were also planning to leave the channel because, they said, it was impossible to perform their professional duties.
Scheduled content
The company which produced several high-profile feature films, notably the Golden LionGolden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
-winning Vozvrashcheniye in 2003, is still a production house and has made much of the network's scheduled content, including numerous TV series:
- Soldiers , following recruits drafted into the Russian ArmyRussian Ground ForcesThe Russian Ground Forces are the land forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, formed from parts of the collapsing Soviet Army in 1992. The formation of these forces posed economic challenges after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and required reforms to professionalize the force...
for their mandatory year of military service. 16 seasons . - Students , following the social lives of several Moscow University for the HumanitiesMoscow University for the HumanitiesMoscow University for the Humanities is an accredited privately operated institution for higher education located in Moscow, Russia. It is a member of the International Association of Universities.The University has six faculties...
students. (2005-2006) - Tourists , following several couples on vacation on a beach resort in TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. (2005)
REN also was showing purchased programming, including:
- The 4400The 4400The 4400 is a science fiction TV series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with Sky Television, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network. The show was created and written by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, and it stars Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie...
(as 4400) since November 26 2006 - Prison BreakPrison BreakPrison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
(as Побег) since September 4 2006 - SupernaturalSupernatural (TV series)Supernatural is an American supernatural and horror television series created by Eric Kripke, which debuted on September 13, 2005 on The WB, and is now part of The CW's lineup. Starring Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester and Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, the series follows the brothers as they...
(as Сверхъестественное) since September 2006 - My Name Is EarlMy Name Is EarlMy Name Is Earl is an American television comedy series created by Greg Garcia that was originally broadcast on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States...
(as Меня зовут Эрл) since 2006 - Formula-1 motor racingFormula OneFormula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
since 2006 - Family GuyFamily GuyFamily Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
(as Гриффины) - The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
(as Симпсоны) - FriendsFriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
(as Друзья) - The X-FilesThe X-FilesThe X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
(as Секретные материалы) - M*A*S*H (as МЭШ)
- JetixJetixJetix was a worldwide children's television programming brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The Jetix brand was used for blocks and channels featuring action-related and adventure-related live-action and animated programming. It was also what Disney eventually turned Fox Kids into...
, children's adventure programming from DisneyThe Walt Disney CompanyThe Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
Current purchased/licensed programming:
- Top Gear RussiaTop Gear RussiaTop Gear Russia was a Russian motoring television series on Ren-TV, based on the British program Top Gear produced by the BBC. It premiered on 22 February 2009.-Presenters:The hosts chosen for Top Gear Russia are:...
since February 22 2009