I can’t invite everyone to my birthday party, but I at least want to hold a contest (just as I promised).
One that serves the public good, with a prize fund of 1 million rubles.
I really want something to come of this. We all really need it.
So. Our national television is deceitful and disgusting. The overwhelming majority of our regional TV channels are even worse. They serve not only the ghouls in Moscow, but the local ones too.
You can still come across decent regional newspapers and websites here and there (sometimes very good ones), but they too are more of an endangered species.
So I got to thinking: if we were able to launch two political YouTube channels with almost no money and absolutely no experience—one with 1.18 million subscribers, the other with 336,000—then it’s вполне likely that this kind of experience can be replicated in the regions.
There used to be very little politics on YouTube, and people didn’t watch it—it was all games and jokes. But now they do watch. There is demand. There is an audience.
I don’t have the slightest doubt that a YouTube channel in any city of over a million people, one that simply criticizes the local authorities fairly and on solid grounds, would get at least 20,000–30,000 views per episode. And that is a bigger audience than the most popular local media outlet has. In other words, the host of such a channel would fairly quickly become the most influential local journalist.
In short, the conditions for success are there. It’s just that, as I see it, people are afraid to start because they keep reading that it’s all very complicated and expensive. In reality, it isn’t.
I want to try to give things a little push, so I’m announcing a contest to create public affairs and political YouTube channels.
All the details are in the video. Don’t be shy. After all, our live channel is watched by tens and even hundreds of thousands of people. Even though we launched it less than three months ago, it’s just talking heads, and we don’t understand television at all. You can do it too.
Let’s make an effort and push that vile television aside with our good, friendly YouTube.
