In a country where media is heavily regulated by its government, there aren’t many independent media news outlets available to Russian citizens. The most common source of news for Russians is television, where the people are fed with Kremlin filtered news.
In order to better understand Russian television, included in a Broadband TV News article are the total number of television channels in the country. "A total of 2,370 TV channels were identified as operating and accessible in Russia and/or having licenses to broadcast in the country, according to a new report of the European Audiovisual Observatory."
However, in an era of fake and state controlled news, one TV channel remains independent. Known as the "optimistic channel," TV Rain is a smaller scale news channel that touches on subjects the other major networks do not attempt to touch on.
“Nobody needs counter-propaganda,” said Mikhail Zygar, the editor-in-chief of the channel. “Our goal is not to fight anything, our goal is just to give people who don’t have real information the thing they don’t have.”
An example of TV Rain's coverage can be seen in an article titled, “What games are behind Putin's decisions, the ‘swelling’ Sobyaninskaya Moscow, and the growing rebellion of migrants,” translated from TV Rain’s official website. This channel dives into criticisms about Putin and governments practices, which is practically unheard of in the region. TV Rain emphasizes content over form and is often described as looking like student run television. The channel is produced differently than other major news channels that broadcast from huge studios with live audiences.
Natalia Sindeeva, founder and general director of TV Rain, has been praised for her work with the channel and “has twice won the ‘Russia’s media manager’ award for her work on radio (2004) and in television (2011).”
In an article written by The Guardian, a British news outlet, it discusses the issues TV Rain faces when trying to interview government officials. One of the popular segments on the channel is Hard Day’s Night. Hosted by Tikhon Dzyadko, Hard Day’s Night is one of the only political round table interview shows in Russia. Dzyadko and other journalists discuss the nations pressing political issues. Less and less political officials have been appearing on the show due to the reputation of the independent news channel and potential backlash they would receive from their superiors.
TV Rain came under fire when they posted an online survey on Twitter asking whether Leningrad should’ve been surrendered to the Nazis during WWII to save the lives taken during the siege. Since it is very uncommon and taboo to mention war efforts in Russia, almost every major cable provider country dropped TV Rain.
In addition to being dropped by these TV providers, Russian parliament passed laws banning advertising on cable channels, causing more trouble for TV Rain.
In order to earn revenue, the channel set up a subscription service for viewers starting at 1,000 roubles per year. The channel came up with the marketing slogan “There are 1,000 reasons not to believe in independent television, but just 1,000 roubles will get it for you.” Presently, the channel has 60,000 subscribers with costs of 4,800 roubles per year. Muscovites make up almost 40 percent of total subscribers.
Despite frequent attempts to be shut down by the government and other far-right groups, TV Rain continues to broadcast “sensitive” news topics. For a short time, the channel got evicted from their studio in the Red October area of Moscow and had to be produced out of the co-owner’s apartment.