At the end of 2024, “Pierwyj” accumulated 4.99 billion rubles (approx. PLN 224 million) of debt to his main contractor, Krasny Krasny, belonging to the billionaire Arkadija Rotenberg, as reported by The Bell, citing the company's statements. Long channel of the first company that produced all key programs for him, increased by almost 70 percent.i.e. 2 billion rubles (approx. PLN 90 million). And from the beginning of 2022, the amount of such debt increased five times, i.e. by almost 4 billion rubles.
Financed from the budget and the first channel bringing chronic losses He was on the edge of the financial ruin in 2020.after gathering billions of dollars debts towards the Ostankino television center, which threatened to broadcast state television. At that time, “Pierwyj” was saved by the State WTB Bank, which in return received 32.9 percent. shares.
Vladimir Putin on the screens. Illustrative photo
However, despite the financial recovery, the outflow of viewers could not be stopped. Already in 2016, “Pierwyj” lost the lead in the ranking of television channels for the Rossija-1 station, and At the end of last year it fell to fourth place. Compared to 2021, according to MediaScope, the assessment of the first channel dropped almost one and a half times, and its participation in the audience dropped by a quarter. In total, the state TV channels lost about 25 million viewers compared to 2017, as the Pointmedia portal calculated based on MediaScope data.
Despite this, the financing of state television from the budget is growing: in 2025. The federal budget will allocate a record amount of 137.2 billion rubles (approx. PLN 6 billion) for the maintenance of state media. Compared to last year, television expenditure increased by 13 percent, and their total size exceeded the annual budgets of many Russian circuits.
