A train with Georgian forces heads to the breakaway province of South Ossetia lays at an unknown location in Georgia, in this image made from television Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008.
Photo: NTV Russian Channel
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War in South Ossetia Won the Prime-Time
The war in South Ossetia has been the obvious highlight recently. According to the yesterday's report of TNS Gallup Media, the attention of the better part of Russia’s TV viewers has been drawn to the news programs since Friday. The ratings of news programs climbed two or three fold, luring the audience from soap operas and even Beijing Olympics.
The war in South Ossetia has been the main and actually the sole topic of news programs on TV. Channel One, Rossia, NTV and TV Center broadcast from 16 to 18 news spots August 8. REN TV, Zvezda and around-the-clock Vesti-24 were covering the event as well.
The federal TV channels kept releasing from six to eight news spots even during the weekend, when the news programs are not so frequent in the air.
Indeed, the Olympics, feature films or soap operas were practically of no interest to the Russians older than 18 years. The nation was watching the news, doubling and tripling the ratings of news programs. News spots won the first five lines in Top 20, which had happened in peacetime very long ago given that it is the height of summer now.
Similar surge in the news preference of the Russians dates back to tragedy of September 1, 2004, when the terrorists captured a school in Beslan, taking hostages over a thousand, mostly children and women.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 12, 2008
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