Kommersant: "The President Finds his Audience"
Arina Borodina
Dmitry Medvedev's address boosted the ratings of the TV channels that broadcast it.
Tentative results of measurements conducted by TNS-Russia on how Muscovites over the age of 18 watched a live broadcast of President Medvedev's Address to the Federal Assembly on Channel 1 and Russia Channel were unveiled yesterday. Mr Medvedev's first major public speech was watched by more people than normally watch these channels.
According to TNS Russia, the Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly was watched live in Moscow on November 5 by 42.9% of the audience - a little less than half of the capital's potential adult audience. Of these, 20.4% of the audience, with a rating of 3.5%, watched Dmitry Medvedev's speech on Channel 1, and 22.5%, with a rating of 3.9%, on Russia Channel. In both cases, the indicators are higher than the number of people normally watching television in the daytime. Russia Channel in particular has not had such a big audience in a long time, by day and even by night. Even the channel's most popular show "Stellar Ice", aired during prime time on Saturdays, attracts a much smaller audience in Moscow than Dmitry Medvedev's speech on November 5.
It is notable that by noon, when the presidential address was beginning, the share of Channel 1 had increased by almost 9 percentage points compared with the previous programme "Trial Purchase" (10.7%), and Russia Channel's audience diminished a little bit compared with the Vesti-Moskva news programme (25.9%) that preceded it. Curiously, as soon as Dmitry Medvedev ended his hour-and-a-half-long address, Russia Channel's audience diminished while Channel 1's audience continued to grow.
It will be recalled that the President's Annual Address to the Federal Assembly is one of the three official formats broadcast live by government channels since 2000. Over the last eight years, when Vladimir Putin was the country's President, his addresses to the Federal Assembly were watched by fewer people than, for example, his more popular live question-and-answer sessions with the people or press conferences with Russian and foreign journalists.
If one compares the ratings of the first broadcast of Mr Putin's Address to the Federal Assembly in 2000 and Mr Medvedev's first address in 2008, one can note many differences. Mr Putin was speaking not at the height of the television watching season, but in mid-summer (on July 8, and not on a weekday, but on Saturday). By the way, the President's address then, as now, had not been announced in the printed television programme. Over the eight years, the technological capacity to measure the interests of TV audiences substantially increased. Yet even allowing for these differences, the difference in audience interest is substantial: in 2000, Mr Putin's Address was watched by 27.5% of the Channel 1 and Russia Channel Moscow audience, while Mr Medvedev's first Address was watched by 42.9%.
The most striking difference, however, between Mr Medvedev's first major TV address and the presidential addresses of former years was the result of the repeat broadcast of his speech in the evening. Traditionally, the main news bulletins on Channel 1 and Russia Channel rerun the highlights of the presidential message. As a rule, audiences did not watch them and the ratings of these digests were quite modest. This time around, a special broadcast of Vesti was much longer than usual. It went on the air on Russia Channel at 19.45 and reran Dmitry Medvedev's speech almost in full for a whole hour. It was watched by 16.2% of the Moscow audience.
More people watched that programme than the preceding soap opera "One's Own Flesh and Blood" (13.6%) and, even more surprisingly, as many people as watched the "Monte Cristo" soap on Channel 1, aired simultaneously with Vesti.
The hour-long Vremya broadcast notched up an even bigger share, 22.1%, also much higher than viewing numbers for the soap operas on Russia (12.3%) and NTV (17.5%) that ran simultaneously.
Managers of the government channels are not hiding their pleasure with the results of the transmission of Mr Medvedev's address to the Federal Assembly. Asked by Kommersant if the TV channels are happy with the ratings of the Presidential Address, the VGTRK managers said, "Yes, Russia Channel's figures are high and the overall share of our broadcasts is big enough. It has something to do with the expectation of the first presidential address, which undoubtedly became an important historical document." Viewers were also interested in seeing the picture. The television picture was new and ‘lavish'. "The historical interiors of one of Russia's most beautiful halls, St George's, were appreciated," a VGTRK executive stressed.
Director General of Channel 1, Konstantin Ernst, thus summed up his attitude to the ratings of the Presidential Address: "Several minutes after the end of the Address, I already had information on the size of the audience. The TV audience measurement service (the telephone call service that has served as the basis for Channel 1's programming since 2002 - Kommersant) polled more than 9,000 respondents yesterday. The share of the Channel 1 and Russia Channel audiences that watched the Address live was 49.6%. Of these, 33.7% watched Channel 1 and 15.6% watched Russia Channel. The evening rerun of the address was watched by 46.8%, including 26.8% on the Vremya programme and 20.3% on Vesti's special broadcast. We are certainly pleased with such high figures. They indicate the audience's interest in the first Presidential Address delivered by President Medvedev."
