Yesterday, preliminary information from TNS Russia emerged about viewers' response to the TV coverage of Mr Putin's appearance at the State Duma, where the Prime Minister described the anti-crisis measures his Government has taken.
The live broadcast of Mr Putin's report had not been trailed in the schedules, but viewers watched the broadcast live on the Rossiya channel and the news programme Vesti, which come under the remit of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Mr Putin's speech was broadcast on the Rossiya channel for a little over an hour, with the rolling coverage ending when he concluded his report. The ensuing discussion of his report by political parties and their reaction to the anti-crisis measures presented by Mr Putin could be watched live on Vesti, which has a smaller audience share than Rossiya.
The ratings show that the audience share during the Prime Minister's report on the Rossiya channel both in Moscow and across the country was a little over 18% with a rating of around 3%. While Mr Putin was speaking at the State Duma, TV viewers were more interested in other programmes broadcast at the same time: NTV had "Jury Trial" (which got 19.4% in the country, and 22.1% in Moscow ), while the First Channel showed the popular TV drama "National Security Agent" (which got 21.2% and 20.4%, respectively). Viewers in the regions, where Vesti is watched in major cities, favoured the live broadcast from the Duma. On April 6, the three-hour speech by Mr Putin was the most popular programme. It had an audience share of 4.5%, whereas the average daily indicator for the news channel is no more than 1.5%