TV Is All That Matters

Michael Hedges October 1, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Disregard, please, the dire warnings of intertwined social and mobile media spinning a web around television and strangling it. Technology people or advertising people or advertising technology people plant most of this. TV will remain the leading mass media around the globe for a few more years, at least until the next climate event. People really don’t like interacting, particularly with bots. It’s what they do for work or what passes for work. People like to be amused or, at least, distracted. The TV people know this.

Television in Ukraine is a good case in point. It and the rest of the country’s media sphere “had to be developed from scratch after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union,” noted a recent Media Landscapes report from the European Journalism Center. And it certainly developed. The retreat and eventual end of the Soviet Union opened a vast region to new and open media. Developers and investors rushed in, some looking to make money, others promoting a freer flow of ideas. The changes were abrupt, delighting some, others not so much. Such it is with change.

Ambitious, wealthy and well-connected folks took control of a lot of TV channels, some new, in that first decade of independence. Some have colorful entanglements. Several no longer reside in Ukraine.

One of the first privately owned television channels in Ukraine was ICTV, launched in 1992. It is owned by StarLightMedia, the media company of billionaire Victor Pinchuk, son-in-law of former Ukraine president Leonid Kuchma. The company also owns TV channels STB, Noviy Kanal and others. They are considered “neutral” in the pro-Russia/pro-Europe divide.

TRK Ukraina started broadcasting in 1993 as a Donetsk regional channel. Since then it has expanded throughout the country as part of Media Group Ukraine, principally owned by billionaire steel and energy trader Rinat Akhmetov, who also owns a newspaper. After lawsuits, several news outlets in Ukraine and elsewhere have issued retractions and apologies for publishing stories alleging his association with doggy individuals. He may or may not live at London’s most expensive penthouse One Hyde Square, which he owns. TRK Ukraina is known mostly for Russian-language serials and reality shows rather than news.

The top rated television channel in Ukraine is Inter TV, launched in 1996. The company went through several owners or suspected owners and now operates seven other channels. One of its original investors was, and remains, Russian State TV Channel One. Principal ownership is currently held by serial investor Dmytro Firtash. He has been under house arrest since 2014 in Vienna, Austria awaiting extradition to the United States on bribery charges.

1+1 TV started broadcasting in 1995, originally owned by Alexander Rodnyanski. He sold the business, acrimoniously, to a joint venture of Central European Media Enterprises (CME) and banking billionaire Ihor Kolomoyskyi. 1+1 Media Group grew to several channels, a production house and online platforms on CME’s exit from Ukraine in 2007. Mr. Kolomoyski principally controls the company and, reportedly, lives in Switzerland.

Two comedy shows became huge hits for 1+1 TV: Kvartal 95 and Servant of the People, both from independent production house Studio Kvartal 95. The star of both shows, and principal owner of the production house, was Volodymyr Zelensky, current president of Ukraine. Rather uncomfortably, President Zelensky found himself in the international news with US president Donald Trump and something about a quid pro quo. President Trump, a self-described billionaire, previously found fame as a TV game show host. Servant of the People is available on Netflix.

Newer to the lot are 5 Kanal and news channel Priamoi, owned by chocolate billionaire and former president Petro Poroshenko. Cable news channel 112 Ukrayina is also relatively new, believed to be controlled, along with news channels NewsOne and ZiK, by Viktor Medvedchuk. Mr. Medvedchuk served as president Kuchma’s chief of staff and has been considered (Kiev Post December 30, 2013) a pro-Russian political operative.

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• Hot Topics - Media in Ukraine