MOSCOW, 2 FEBRUARY 2012 — RT’s profit from YouTube has exceeded a million dollars, doubling in just six months.
The financial success stems from a massive increase in RT’s popularity on YouTube. RT is the first TV news channel to surpass half a billion views on YouTube, with current total running at over 670 million. “RT is our trump card, one of the, if not the biggest news provider on YouTube worldwide,” YouTube’s director of video partnerships Patrick Walker told MIPCOM 2011. RT’s YouTube stats place it head and shoulders above the competition – with total views three times that of ABC news, 11 times that of Reuters, 13 times SKY News and 29 times Fox News. RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan reflected on RT’s YouTube progress “2011 has proven very successful for our channel. We beat world records we could hardly have dreamt of a couple of years ago, which reaffirms once again that audiences are demanding an alternative view on global events”.