MOSCOW, AUGUST 1, 2011 – RT’s total view count on YouTube has now exceeded half a billion, making the Russian news channel a world record setter.
In terms of the total view count, RT is well ahead of other major media outlets - Al Jazeera English gets only half as many hits; Reuters and Sky News are viewed 12 times less; and CNN International receives 100 times fewer clicks. Thanks to its snowballing popularity, RT’s revenue from Youtube has already exceeded half a million U.S. Dollars. “It’s a remarkable achievement, and I’m proud that we made it over such a short period of time,” said RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan. In 2007, RT became the first of Russia’s channels to start uploading content to the world’s largest video hosting service, YouTube. In March 2011, RT became YouTube’s most viewed channel, beating the hugely popular music video website Vevo. As of today, RT’s total view count on YouTube has exceeded 500 million and, according to YouTube Trends analysts, is growing at an average rate of 850 thousand views per day .