Ukraine Today goes online only to save costs

Ukraine Today, the international news channel set up by commercial broadcaster 1+1 Media Group to counter what it viewed as anti-Ukrainian Russian propaganda following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, has moved to being an online-only service to save costs.

1+1 said that further development of the channel would require a much larger investment and that it was currently unable to evaluate the effectiveness of broadcasting as a means of distributing the service. It said that it had decided to cut the most expensive part of the operation – satellite broadcasting – and focus on the internet.

“During the existence of the project we have understood the target audience of Ukraine Today, its tastes and sources of information. And now it is obvious for us that the Internet is our priority. We are going to reformat the website into a platform where we will gather expertise on the region (not only Ukraine, but also Poland and the entire Baltic-Black Sea region), post expert opinions, various discussions, interviews and evaluations,” said Tetiana Pushnova, executive producer of Ukraine Today.

“The launch of Ukraine Today TV channel in August 2014 had a social component. We have seen the need to support the country on the international field especially in circumstances where there was no public channel which could take over this function. Today we are confident that the channel has fulfilled its mission. Last year Ukraine’s public service broadcaster has launched its own international TV channel and we are ready to help and support them,” said Alexander Tkachenko, CEO of 1+1 media.