One of the world’s most widely discussed news channels, RT, is celebrating 15 years of broadcasting this week.
RT first aired on December 10, 2005. Since then, it has grown in stature and is now widely considered one of the world’s go-to sources for news, especially for those looking for a Russian viewpoint on the issues of the day.
It is broadcasted in six different languages and experts have estimated that its TV service has around 100 million viewers in 47 countries around the world each week.
Their online offering has also gone from strength to strength, with RT being the first news service to reach 10 billion views on Youtube.
This success can be attributed to many elements of the mult-award winning channel, with many suggesting the quality of contributors being key.
The likes of TV legend, Larry King, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges, ex-Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa and former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmon all appear on the channel regularly.
After launching its English-language channel in 2005, RT launched an Arabic channel two years later and a Spanish one two years later again. In 2019, it launched RT America and has since begun broadcasting in both London and Paris. It has also added a documentary channel and a German arm to its operations.
RT is celebrating its 15 years on the air with a video entitled the ‘The Green Menace’. This video plays on Cold War era videos warning Americans about Soviet dangers. Instead of these dangers, the video suggests that viewers should be wary of ‘RT: A Weapon of Mass Communication.’
Sticking with humour, RT has also released a ‘Deep Fake’ video revealing what several ‘world leaders’ think of the channel.
