It's 75 years since television came to Russia for the first time. The signals in early television sets were weak and the screens smaller than a matchbox. They have nothing in common with modern plasma TV screens.

Viewers watched through a magnifying glass. The first TV screen was as small as a postage stamp, only three by four centimetres. To make images of human faces look natural in vision, on film they were painted green.

At that time television was called radiovision, but it soon outgrew radio and became the most popular mass media. To become a TV presenter, aspirants had to pass hundreds of tough castings. Appearance, speech, intelligence and actors' abilities were all a must.

Russian television has always been free of charge and gathered mass audiences. The first Russian TV anchors were like family members to the audience and held in as high esteem as the country's top politicians.

Now, that television is well into the digital era and technology's changing rapidly, Russia is looking forward to a boom in new channels.