PEW STUDY: RT PRODUCES MOST POPULAR CONTENT ON YOUTUBE

MOSCOW, JULY 17, 2012 – A fifteen-month research project by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, titled “YouTube & News: A New Kind of Visual News,” shows more viewers turning to YouTube as news source and highlights RT as by far the largest provider of news video footage on the platform.

The study, which took place from January 2011 through March 2012, found that on YouTube, RT does not simply drastically outpace other news channels, including Al Jazeera English, Fox, CNN and BBC, with nearly 750 million views and 280,000 subscribers; it also highlighted that RT produced the most popular content (individual videos): “far more videos on the list than any other – 22 of the most viewed 260,” according to the research. RT accounts for the largest share of Top Five (most popular) news videos each week on YouTube: 8.5%, according to Pew’s calculations, or more than double the share of its closest competitors, Fox News and BBC (UK). The most watched YouTube news item for all of 2011 also belongs to RT: the footage of the March 2011 tsunami hitting the coast of Japan has been viewed more than 20 million times. RT is a global international news network that broadcasts in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow and Washington, DC. It is available to 530 million viewers worldwide, including more than 85 million in the US. In 2010, RT became the first ever Russian channel to garner a nomination for the prestigious Emmy International Award, in the News category. The Project for Excellence in Journalism tracks the transformation of journalism in a changing information landscape through its annual State of the News Media report and a series of special reports. As part of the nonpartisan, non-advocacy Pew Research Center, it does not take positions on policy issues.