Russia Today first news net to hit a billion on YouTube

News network Russia Today (RT) has passed one billion video views on YouTube, marking the first time a TV news channel has reached the milestone figure on the site.

The global news network, which broadcasts from Moscow and Washington studios and can be seen on cable networks around the world, first launched on YouTube in 2007 and now has more than 869,000 subscribers on the site.

“Very few of our partners can boast a billion video views, and RT will be the first news channel to get to this number,” said YouTube VP of marketing Danielle Tiedt, adding that it is YouTube’s “largest news partner in the world”.

“RT was one of the first channels to come to YouTube, back in 2007, and to create video content aimed specifically at ‘generation c’ – the kind of content that our users gladly watch and share,” said Tiedt.

RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan hailed the billion hits as an “amazing achievement,” particularly when it comes to targeting a young audience. She said: “From RT’s very first days we knew that in the near future the battle for viewers will be taking place on the internet [and] on new platforms. This is why we are especially proud and happy to be the first.”