Russian Version of EuroNews to Be Broadcast in France

The EuroNews international news channel and the VGTRK All-Russian State TV and Radio Broadcasting Company have announced that the Russian version of EuroNews will soon be broadcast on all cable and satellite channels in France, VGTRK spokesmen said.

EuroNews has concluded an agreement with CanalSattelite and TPS, France's basic digital broadcasters, and with NC Numericable, NOOS and France Telecom Cable, France's largest cable TV operators, on broadcasting the Russian version of EuroNews on their channels.

In the next few weeks to come, the Russian version of EuroNews will be available at more than 4 million French homes and will be the first Russian-speaking news channel in France.

"We are sure that the channel will be a success among France's Russian-speaking population," VGTRK Chairman Oleg Dobrodeyev stressed.

According to him, VGTRK "is satisfied with the co-operation with EuroNews launched a little more than a year ago." Euronews managing director David Lowen added that he was "quite satisfied with the success of the Russian version of EuroNews, especially with the launch of its Russian broadcasts in France." In Russia, more than 27 million homes now watch the Russian version of EuroNews.

Last December, VGTRK announced its intention to increase, from 1.8 to 16 percent, its share in the capital of SECEMIE, the EuroNews editorial company comprising 19 public service broadcasters.

The pan-European news channel EuroNews was founded in 1993. It offers a European vision of international news and broadcasts simultaneously in 7 languages - German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian digitally and on cable systems and ground-based transmitters in Europe, Russia, the Middle East, America and Africa.

Since September 17th, 2001, Euronews has been broadcasting the first international news channel in Russian across Russia. EuroNews is the first round-the-clock news channel in Russia and is the first international channel broadcast on ground-based transmitters in Russia.