TV Audience in Washington, D.C. Metro Area Prefers Watching Russia Today to Other Foreign TV News in Prime Time

TV Audience in Washington, D.C. Metro Area Prefers Watching Russia Today to Other Foreign TV News in Prime Time

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the survey by Nielsen Media Research, Washington, D.C. DMA* TV audience prefers watching news on Russia Today TV (RT) in prime time, rather than news on Al Jazeera English, Deutsche Welle, France 24, Euronews and CCTV-9.

Nielsen reported that RT's daily audience is over 6.5 times bigger than that of Al Jazeera English, the second most popular source of TV news among foreign broadcasters in the US after BBC. RT's monthly audience is 5 times bigger than that of Deutsche Welle.

RT is a relative newcomer to a well-saturated TV news market, and its budget is a fraction of that of any of its competitors among international TV news broadcasters.

"We are pleased that residents of Washington and its suburbs - in other words, the people who generally define American politics - often prefer to get their news from RT. We believe it proves again that the channel has chosen the right strategy. From the very beginning we've been aiming to show our viewers news that they won't be able to find on other channels. It's nice to know that such an approach is proving attractive for the most educated and influential part of the American viewing audience," - said Margarita Simonyan, RT's Editor-in-Chief.

Nielsen Media Research carried out the research in July 2009, which focused on TV-audience of Washington DMA.

RT is available to almost five million viewers in the Washington Area on the following platforms: MHZ Networks 5: Comcast Cable, Cox Cable, RCN Cable, Dish Network and Verizon FIOS TV.

*: Washington DMA Designated Market Area, is a term coined by Nielsen Media Research to define groupings of mutually exclusive television marketing areas. The Washington DMA in 2008 consists of 33 counties and seven independent cities, in four states and the District of Columbia, with a total of 2,334,800 households.

About the research: 4574 respondents participated in the poll, which was conducted by phone from May to July, 2009. The respondents were subscribers of leading TV operators such as Comcast, RCN, Cox, DirecTV, Dish Network, who know RT and have access to it among other subscription channels.

Men and women (age 18 and above) were polled. Information about social membership: 13.4% work in management, 10.7% own companies and businesses. Over 10% of respondents said that their annual income amounted to $200,000 or more.

web: www.rt.com

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: RusInfoService LLC

CONTACT: Moscow: Yulia Yermolina, Head of Press Office,
+7(495)926-24-50, or Fax: +7(495)926-28-41, press@rttv.ru; or New York: Dmitri
Klimentov, RusInfoService LLC, +1-914-525-6058, dk@rusinfoservice.com

Web Site: http://www.rt.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment