O2TV is a Russian independent TV channel, the target audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

 of which are young people between 16 and 35, who,as the 2006 presentation reads, would constitute an influential portion of the electorate

Electorate

Electorate may refer to:* voters, people entitled to vote in an election* electoral district or constituency, the geographic area of a particular election* The dominion of a Prince-elector in the Holy Roman Empire...

 in the Russian legislative and presidential elections.

The O2TV audience

Audience

An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...

 exceeds 17 million people and adds another million every month. The channel is broadcast in over 300 Russian cities, as well as in cities of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS

Commonwealth of Independent States

The Commonwealth of Independent States is a regional organization whose participating countries are former Soviet Republics, formed during the breakup of the Soviet Union....

).

History

In 2006 the channel, which had already existed for 2 years by broadcasting music, was transformed into and rebranded as socially-political. At that time it had a 'reach' of only 17 million people, including 1.3 million Moscowites. According to the President of the channel Vasily Lavrov, "We had the aim to create an independent media resource, and we did it."

The title 'O2TV' was derived from the chemical designation for an oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...

 molecule, O2. A popular brand on the channel — "oxygenic television", worked on the similarity of the Russian slang taboo adjective which means "perfect, great".

Positioning

O2TV is positioned as "one of the first TV projects which aren't devoted to housewives". Instead, it's "television for youth, those who are little interested in the traditional TV stuff, those who live a full life". The major principle of the channel is live communication with the viewers. O2TV doesn't buy any content, but produces its own.

According to Vasily Lavrov, "O2TV is antitelevision in the sense, what's the today TV in our country. We are against bubblegum music, platitude, beavisbuttheads

Beavis and Butt-Head

Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...

, petrosyans

Yevgeny Petrosyan

Yevgeny Vaganovich Petrosyan is a Soviet/Russian comedian of Armenian and Jewish descents. He was named in 2005 among the most influential figures in contemporary Russia, in a survey conducted by independent polling agency The Levada Centre...

, serdyuchkas

Verka Serduchka

Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko , better known as his drag character Verka Serduchka , is a Ukrainian comedian and pop and dance singer. In the role of Serduchka, he represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 and finished in second place...

and the total seamy side of traditional TV. Our task is to form a sound world-view of young people, but not to copy the consciousness of a dumb western inhabitant. In our country clever, talented people live who should recognize themselves on the TV screen."

External links

• O2TV web-site (in Russian)
• O2TV online broadcast