Teledebates a Bore for Viewers
The first week of pre-election debates on television channels Channel One, Rossiya and TV Center have failed to spark viewer interest. Even though it is the first time in years that criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the United Russia Party has been heard on those state channels, the debates are lagging behind competing programming. Since November 6, debates, party ads have been airing from 7:00 to 8:00 in the morning on Channel One, and from 10:50 to 11:30 p.m. on Rossiya and between 5:30 and 6:50 p.m. on TV Center.
According to TNS Gallup Media, the debates on Channel One receive a 16-20 percent share of the audience, for a rating of 1.5 percent (that is, of the population). Those indicators are lower than the average program on that channel and lower than other segments of the Good Morning program that the debates are included in. On the first day of the debates, the shares for various segments of the Good Morning show between 6:00 and 7:05 ranged from 37 to 50 percent in Moscow. At 7:05, when the debate started, the share fell from 37.8 to 19 percent. After the debate, it rose to 24 percent and then to 30 percent.
On Rossiya, the beginning of the debates coincided with the premier of a serialization of War and Peace, on which high hopes were pinned. Both the serial and the debates were a disappointment, with the debates attracting a 9-10-percent share and rating just over 3 percent in Moscow, where interest in politics is traditionally strongest. On TV Center, the debates received a 3-5-percent share and a rating below 1 percent.
When televised debates were held during prime time before the 2003 Duma elections, they also attracted a small share of viewers. The truly lively discussions of topics that have long been banned from the Russian airwaves have not fanned viewer interest this year either. The United Russia Party is refusing to participate in the debates. Elections to the State Duma will be held next month.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 13, 2007
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