REN TV (russian: РЕН ТВ) is a Russian
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
television network
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or multichannel video programming distributo ...
, was founded on 1 January 1997 by
Irena Lesnevskaya
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge, and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy. It is the first international organis ...
and her son,
Dmitry Lesnevsky
Dmitry Anatolyevich Lesnevskiy (b. February 2, 1970) is a Russian-British-Israeli entrepreneur and producer in television, film, publishing and online media.
Early life
Dmitry Lesnevskiy was born in a Jewish family. He graduated from Moscow State ...
, who had been running REN TV as a production house for other national Russian television channels. Though it focuses mostly on audiences aged between 18 and 45 years old, the network offers programming for a wide range of demographics.
REN TV's network is a patchwork of 406 independent broadcasting companies in Russia and the
CIS
Cis or cis- may refer to:
Places
* Cis, Trentino, in Italy
* In Poland:
** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central
** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north
Math, science and biology
* cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...
. REN TV's signal is received in 718 towns and cities in Russia - from
Kaliningrad
Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...
in the West to
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk ( rus, Ю́жно-Сахали́нск, a=Ru-Южно-Сахалинск.ogg, p=ˈjuʐnə səxɐˈlʲinsk, literally "South Sakhalin City") is a city on Sakhalin island, and the administrative center of Sakhalin Oblast, Russia. I ...
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 Oblast ( rus, Моско́вская о́бласть, r=Moskovskaya oblast', p=mɐˈskofskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ), or Podmoskovye ( rus, Подмоско́вье, p=pədmɐˈskovʲjə, literally "under Moscow"), is a federal subject of Rus ...
(Moscow Region). REN TV works with 10 broadcaster affiliates and 19 cable operators in the CIS and the
Baltic states
The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
; 181 cities can receive REN TV's signal.
Ownership
Until 1 July 2005 the channel belonged to its founder Irena Lesnevskaya and her son (30%) and the Russian utility
RAO UES
OAO RAO UES (OAO Unified Energy System of Russia; russian: ЕЭС России or russian: Единая Энергетическая Система) was an electric power holding company in Russia. It controlled about 70% of Russia's installed el ...
headed by
Anatoly Chubais
Anatoly Borisovich Chubais (russian: Анатолий Борисович Чубайс; born 16 June 1955) is a Russian politician and economist who was responsible for privatization in Russia as an influential member of Boris Yeltsin's administ ...
. In 2005
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...
's ''
RTL'' bought 30% of REN TV with steel maker
Severstal
Severstal (russian: Северсталь, , Northern Steel) is a Russian company mainly operating in the steel and mining industry, headquartered in Cherepovets. Severstal is listed on the Moscow Exchange and LSE and is the largest steel company ...
and oil and natural gas company
Surgutneftegaz
Surgutneftegas ( rus, ПАО «Сургутнефтегаз», p=sʊrɡʊtnʲɪftʲɪˈɡas) is a Russian oil and gas company created by merging several previously state-owned companies owning large oil and gas reserves in Western Siberia. The ...
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
The Rossiya Bank (Bank Rossiya (russian: Банк «Росси́я»), in Russian: Акционерный коммерческий банк Россия, АКБ Россия) is a Russian joint stock bank founded on June 27, 1990. The company's h ...
. ABRos had bought a considerable stake in REN. The bank, whose chairman,
Yury Kovalchuk
Yury Valentinovich Kovalchuk (russian: Ю́рий Валенти́нович Ковальчу́к; born 25 July 1951) is a Russian billionaire businessman and financier who is "reputed to be Vladimir Putin's personal banker". The Panama Papers l ...
, 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
Surgutneftegas ( rus, ПАО «Сургутнефтегаз», p=sʊrɡʊtnʲɪftʲɪˈɡas) is a Russian oil and gas company created by merging several previously state-owned companies owning large oil and gas reserves in Western Siberia. The ...
had sold its stake in the channel to ABRos, which had increased its stake in the media company from 45% to 70%. '
ere are indications that
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...
was interested in selling up, after about 18 months in the Russian TV market,' the broadcasting news website added.
Currently National Media Group owns 82%, and Russian state oil company
Gazprom
PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐzˈprom) is a Russian majority state-owned multinational energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. As of 2019, with sales over $120 billion, it was ranked as the larges ...
subsidiary
SOGAZ
SOGAZ is a Russian insurance company. SOGAZ became the first in Russia by written premium (₽142.8 billion or US$2.3 billion) and market share (12.1%) in 2016.
The company was formed in 1993 and has direct business in Russia and Serbia. Insurance ...
owns 18%.
Logos
File:Логотип REN-TV-НВС (1997-1998).png, 1997
File:1-й логотип REN-TV.svg, 1997-2005
File:2-й логотип REN-TV.svg, 2005-2006
File:3-й логотип РЕН ТВ.svg, 2006-2007
File:9-й логотип РЕН ТВ.svg, On-screen bug
File:Logo Ren-TV.svg, 2006-2007 (black & white)
File:Rentv 2007 logo.png, 2007
File:RenTV.png, 2007-2010
File:RenTV2010.png, 2010-2011
File:REN TV logo 2011.png, 2011-2014
File:REN TV logo 2014.jpg, 2014
File:REN TV Logo 2014.svg, 2014-2015
File:REN TV logo 2015.svg, 2015-2017
File:REN TV logo 2017.svg, 2017–present
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
Marianna Maksimovskaya (born 7 April 1970) is a Russian journalist and television presenter. She presented the programme "The Week" which was reported as the last independent TV news source in Russia when it was stopped in 2014.
Life
Maksimovskay ...
, formerly an anchor and news presenter for
Vladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky (russian: Владимир Александрович Гусинский, ; born 6 October 1952) is a Russian media tycoon. He founded the Media-Most holding company that included the NTV free-to-air channel, t ...
's
NTV Station. Maksimovskaya was in charge of news broadcasts on REN TV until 2014, when she was fired. Due to her activities, the channel was arguably Russia's 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 Liberty (RFE/RL) is a United States government funded organization that broadcasts and reports news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Caucasus, and the Middle East where it says tha ...
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 Borisovich Ivanov ( rus, Сергей Борисович Иванов, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈrʲisəvʲɪtɕ ɪvɐˈnof; born 31 January 1953) is a Russian senior official and politician who has served as the Special Representative of ...
'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 (russian: links=no, Эхо Москвы, translit=Ekho Moskvy) was a 24/7 commercial Russian radio station based in Moscow. It broadcast in many Russian cities, some of the former Soviet republics (through partnerships with local ra ...
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 Konstantinovich Tsereteli ( ka, ზურაბ კონსტანტინეს ძე წერეთელი, russian: Зураб Константинович Церетели; born 4 January 1934) is a Georgian-Russian painter, sc ...
, the International Press Institute noted in its report on 2005.
Ordzhonikidze said in an interview for
Echo of Moscow
Echo of Moscow (russian: links=no, Эхо Москвы, translit=Ekho Moskvy) was a 24/7 commercial Russian radio station based in Moscow. It broadcast in many Russian cities, some of the former Soviet republics (through partnerships with local ra ...
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.
hey
Hey or Hey! may refer to:
Music
* Hey (band), a Polish rock band
Albums
* ''Hey'' (Andreas Bourani album) or the title song (see below), 2014
* ''Hey!'' (Julio Iglesias album) or the title song, 1980
* ''Hey!'' (Jullie album) or the title s ...
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
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
'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
RIA Novosti (russian: РИА Новости), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (russian: РИА, label=none) is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013 by a decree of Vladimir Putin it was liquidated and its asse ...
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 Lion
The Golden Lion ( it, 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 prestigious and distinguishe ...
-winning ''
Vozvrashcheniye
''The Return'' (russian: Возвращение, ''Vozvrashcheniye'') is a 2003 Russian coming-of-age drama film directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev and released internationally in 2004.
It tells the story of two Russian boys whose father suddenly ret ...
'' in 2003, is still a production house and has made much of the network's scheduled content, including numerous TV series:
*''Soldiers'' (russian: Солдаты), following recruits drafted into the
Russian Army
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
for their mandatory year of military service. 16 seasons .
*''Students'' (russian: Студенты), following the social lives of several
Moscow University for the Humanities
Moscow University for the Humanities (russian: Московский гуманитарный университет - МосГУ) is an accredited privately operated institution for higher education located in Moscow, Russia. It is a member of t ...
students. (2005-2006)
*''Tourists'' (russian: Туристы), following several couples on vacation on a beach resort in Turkey. (2005)
List of television series, studio taken
FOX
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
and
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...
.
REN also was showing purchased programming, including:
*''
Prison Break
''Prison Break'' is an American serial (radio and television), serial drama television show, television series created by Paul Scheuring for Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purce ...
'' (as ''Побег'') since September 4, 2006
*''
Family Guy
''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...
'' (as ''Гриффины'')
*''
Friends
''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...
'' (as ''Друзья'')
*''
M*A*S*H
''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker.
The ...
'' (as ''МЭШ'')
*''
My Name Is Earl
''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia that aired on the NBC television network from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, in the United States. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and starred Jaso ...
'' (as ''Меня зовут Эрл'') since 2006
*''
Supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
'' (as ''Сверхъестественное'') since September 2006
*''
The 4400
''The 4400'' (pronounced "the forty-four hundred") is a science fiction television series produced by CBS Paramount Network Television in association with BSkyB, Renegade 83, and American Zoetrope for USA Network in the United States and Sky ...
'' (as ''4400'') since November 26, 2006
*''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' (as ''Симпсоны'')
*''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
'' (as ''Секретные материалы'')
*''
Jetix
Jetix (stylized as JETIX) was a children's entertainment brand owned by The Walt Disney Company. The brand was for a slate of action/adventure-related programming blocks and television channels. Jetix programming mainly originated from the S ...
'', children's adventure programming from
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
Current purchased/licensed programming:
*''
Persons Unknown'' (as ''Неизвестные лица'') since November 2012
*''
Top Gear Russia
''Top Gear Russia'' (russian: Top Gear: Русская версия, lit=Top Gear: Russian Version, Top Gear: Russkaya versiya) was a Russian motoring television series that ran on Ren-TV, and was based on the British program ''Top Gear'' produc ...
'' (russian: Top Gear: Русская версия, italic=yes) since February 22, 2009
Other shows include at the moment:
* Граница Времени (The Edge of Time) - self-produced science fiction series, airs from 2015
Criticism
REN TV has been accused of combining pieces of scientific shows and interviews to produce pseudoscientific "documentaries". In 2015, REN TV's documentaries were awarded ''"the most harmful pseudoscientific project (for spreading of myths, delusions and superstitions)"'' antiprize by the
Ministry of Education and Science for propaganda of conspiracy theories and mistrust for science.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Mass media companies of France
Mass media companies of Russia
Companies based in Paris
Companies based in Moscow
Russian-language television stations in Russia
Television channels and stations established in 1997
1997 establishments in Russia