2×2 (TV channel)
2×2 is a Russian television channel. Founded in 1989, it was the first commercial TV station in the Soviet Union. The channel was shut down from 1997 to 2003, at which point it was started up again. Since then, the channel has predominantly broadcast foreign animated TV series, including children's television series, anime, and adult animation shows.
2x2 began trial broadcasting in July 1989 on the Moscow Programme frequency, becoming the first commercial television channel in the USSR and Russia. Full broadcasting began on 1 November 1989. The network's programming was initially composed of advertising blocks, modern Soviet and Western music videos, cartoons, and TV series.
Starting on April 1, 2007, an animated Russian channel began broadcasting content aimed at a teen and adult audience under the name of 2x2.
Since 2014, the channel has been part of the holding company Gazprom-Media. As of April 2017, it employs 45 people. The channel applied for inclusion in the second multiplex of digital terrestrial television in Russia, but failed to win the competition held by the Federal Competition Commission.
History
Trial period (July–October 1989)
The channel was established by order of the USSR State Committee of Television and Radio Broadcasting as a structural subdivision within the General Directorate of Programs. Trial broadcasting began in July 1989 on Channel 3 in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast under the name "Commercial TV Channel". The channel was broadcast in the daytime, as the frequency was reserved for the state-owned Moscow Programme for evening broadcasts. The duration of the "Commercial TV Channel" broadcasts was not fixed.Infotainment channel (1989–1997)
The name "2×2" was coined by the staff around July 1989. Sergey Lavrov, the artist on staff, developed the general style of the channel and the original logo. On 1 November 1989, the channel began broadcasting under its own name on the frequency of the Moscow Programme.In 1993, 2×2 went to satellite, which resulted in the retransmission of its programs by some regional partners. Before going to satellite, the channel broadcast only in Moscow and the Moscow Oblast, and through its own transmitters in Tver and Ryazan, with the signal being delivered in real time via terrestrial RRL.
In 1995, according to opinion polls, the 1st channel Ostankino and ORT had significantly lower viewership than 2x2 in the daytime. At the time of the closure of the old 2x2, the situation with ratings in the morning and daytime changed in favor of ORT, and the average daily share of channel viewership was approximately 1% of the television audience, which was equivalent to the indicators of STS and REN TV, as well as the Fifth Channel; the Moscow channel MTK had similar rating problems.
2×2 broadcasting on 3 TVK ended exactly at midnight on the night of 8–9 June 1997 due to the expiration of license number 15 from 8 June 1992, issued for 5 years. At 7:00 Moscow time on 9 June, the channel gave up its place on the third television button to the new channels Moskovia and TV Centre, moving to the UHF band, to 51 TVK, where from 7:00 to 11:00 and from 19:00 to 3:00 on weekdays and from 9:00 to 14:00 and from 19:00 to 3:00 on weekends Muz-TV was broadcast. 2×2 broadcast on 51 TVK from 11:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 14:00 to 19:00 on weekends, with extremely low-quality content and the predominance of teleshopping.
On 26 July 1997, the channel stopped broadcasting to Moscow and the Moscow Oblast on 51 TVK. For a long time after the closure of the old 2x2, the company "2x2-Telemarket" existed, which was the exclusive owner of the rights to a number of films, documentaries, animated series, and television series broadcast by the channel before 1997 on the territory of Russia. Later, AFK Sistema acquired 2x2.
Broadcasting schedule
The lack of a strict broadcasting schedule and the format of six-time repetition of the same block of entertainment programs and advertising, which were the result of limited financial resources and the small number of programs at 2x2's disposal, largely played a role in the growth of its popularity. The channel broadcast in the format of "background television". TV sets in offices, stores, cafes, and other public places and institutions were often tuned to 2x2. At that time, 2x2 was the only domestic TV channel that showed music videos, distinguishing it from several existing Soviet TV channels. The channel was highly popular with Soviet schoolchildren, who, while waiting for a 20-minute block of music videos, often also watched advertising blocks that sometimes lasted for 40 minutes without a break. According to a survey of 586 high school students in Moscow schools, conducted in late 1991, the channel became the most popular: it was watched by 34.16% of respondents.From June 1990 to 31 May 1992, the channel broadcast programs from the British channel Super Channel. Their share in the broadcast network almost immediately dominated - one- or two-hour selections of video clips were broadcast, and films. Some educational programs were also broadcast, including those produced by the Discovery Channel, including "After 2000".
From mid-1991, the channel began to broadcast the anime Macron 1. In October 1991, a legal entity Enterprise «TV channel 2x2» was re-registered as LLP Company «TV Channel 2x2».
Starting around 1992, the channel began airing "Green Corridor", a program about heavy and rock music produced by the "BIZ Enterprises" production studio of entrepreneur. Subsequently, the channel's musical policy was almost entirely controlled by Zosimov, as a result of which in 1993 the channel's management signed a contract with the owners of MTV Europe for the retransmission of some of the channel's programs. At first, clips from MTV Europe were broadcast during the day between series and other programs; they were broadcast quite often, including VJ blocks, often even without translation. Among the programs were also episodes of the animated series Beavis and Butt-Head. Soon, sponsored clips of Russian performers, such as Vlad Stashevsky and began to take the place of MTV clips more and more. By the summer of 1994, there remained a daily hour-long selection of clips from MTV, which soon also stopped. Music videos, but no longer from MTV, were occasionally broadcast thereafter, still during breaks between series.
Despite the fact that some of Zosimov's ideas did not justify themselves, he continued to occupy part of the airtime on 2x2, creating the television production company "". Within its framework, a number of musical programs were aired and almost all of the channel's musical components were formed. Also within the framework of this project, the program "Forgotten Names" was aired, dedicated to Soviet estrada, which later moved to the TV-6 channel, where it was aired as part of the program "Disk-kanal" as "Spinning Disks". The hosts of the program were and Nikolai Semashko. Since 2 July 1992, instead of the daytime show of feature films of Central television, the TV channel began to carry out reruns of series going to MTK, the first of which was "Nobody but you".
From 1992 to 1994, the channel broadcast news from BBC, CBS, ITN, and Worldnet in the morning and evening, and one of the morning broadcasts was always aired without translation. The broadcasts were translated into Russian by a simultaneous interpreter, VHS translator Peter Kartsev, who also worked at TV-6.
In 1993–1994, 2x2 regularly aired Greenpeace commercials, and therefore Joanna Stingray and Boris Grebenshchikov often appeared on the channel. From 1993, newscasts were aired. A half-hour weekly program of Aum Shinrikyo was also broadcast.
In 1994, the channel had problems with the Australian television series Chances, which gradually moved from melodrama to a more explicit erotic genre.
In 1994–1995, the channel reached the peak of its popularity due to its diverse broadcasting schedule and broadcasts of such programs as and such animated series as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The creative concept of the TV channel was based on the principle of "family broadcasting", designed for the preferences of each typical family member. Thus, advertising blocks were addressed to entrepreneurs, cartoons and animated series to children, soap operas to housewives, and music videos and programs to young people. The slogan of the 2x2 at the time was "We just work for you! TV channel 2x2".
In 1996, the anime series Sailor Moon started airing on the channel, its first broadcast in Russia. The broadcast of Mexican-made telenovelas also continued, including Tú o nadie, Mi segunda madre, and Caminos cruzados. Such series as Thunder in Paradise, Highlander: The Series, Sledge Hammer!, and Lassie were also aired.
AST-2x2
The implementation of 2x2 began in August 1995 on the basis of its own daytime broadcasting schedule. This project envisaged for the distribution of television programs from Moscow via a satellite communications system throughout Russia and the CIS countries, and to areas with a dense Russian-speaking population. By mid-1996, several stages of this project were successfully completed, which made it possible to switch to broadcasting for 17.5 hours a day, implement strict network programming, and form the basis of the network. The television audience in Russia receiving AST programs was 25 million people and 24 million people in the CIS countries. After the closure of 2x2 in 1997, AST-2x2 remained in operation for some time and broadcast news from TV Centre.On 4 May 1998, AST-2x2 was replaced by the Gazprom-owned channel, which in 2002 was transformed into ASTV and then completely absorbed by the Rambler Internet portal. In January 2003, the educational channel Rambler TV was created to replace ASTV, whose regional broadcasting network was transferred to the new 2x2 in 2007.