Media experts, sociologists, philosophers, workers of culture, and on the whole public leaders often complain that Ukrainian television lacks intellectual content. Den has been filling these “gaps” on the market of the printed press, and now it is embarking on a new prospective form, television broadcasts of the newspaper’s roundtables. Unlike the most of talk shows with the same persons, where serious topic in the blink of an eye turn into empty rows or populist statements, the guests of Den communicate on a totally different level. And this is noted by the television channels which want their audience to be well-educated. Den has many times conducted online broadcasts of the roundtables from the newspaper’s office. This year the ceremony of awarding James Mace’s Prize could be watched live on such channels as Espresso TV, 112 Ukraine, Radio Liberty, Channel 5, Culture, TVi. And recently Den has mastered a new promising form of cooperation with regional channel SK-1. From now on the most important roundtables of the newspaper will be broadcast live for the residents of Zhytomyr.
“We have decided to give our TV audience an opportunity to develop intellectually. People need more analytical information, not only from the news shows,” says the producer of SK-1 TV channel Mykola KOVALCHUK, “That is why we have decided to cooperate with Den and broadcast the roundtables that are held at the newspaper’s office. Such content, the most burning issues that are presented in a broader version, and the guests of Den are interesting for our audience. Big TV channels live in a faster pace, and they are unable to cover some topics fully. However, our audience receives not small amounts of information, but the whole picture, hears the well-grounded opinions of professionals, and can make conclusions, which is very important. Incidentally, after the first shooting of Den’s roundtable ‘Policy of memory. How knowledge of history will help us win’ the crew shared their impressions. The director was the most impressed. He told me after the shooting that he became so interested in the show that he wanted even to buy books from Den’s Library for his family. This is the best promotion of the topic that was broached.
“In the era of the Internet and short headlines we have lost the possibility to calmly contemplate on and discuss the problem. Why don’t we have any good world outlook programs that would shape the nation? Because on nationwide channels they don’t have ratings high enough to sell big volumes of commercials. Correspondingly, in a normal state this role should be performed by public television, which should create the content from the viewpoint of the national security, give to the audience thorough analytical information, form thinking people, and the process of self-identification of our people – the process the power has been trying to blur as much as possible.”
Such channel could take a historical-educational function. And this television must not depend either on the state, or the politicians. Nor should it depend on business structures, but be paid for by the citizens and consequently work for Ukrainians,” the producer of the channel sums up.
Information-entertainment television channel SK-1 on the territory of Zhytomyr Oblast is quite young, but ambitious – to make the television product it uses cinema technologies, and it is broadcasted in HD format. After the broadcaster was completely renewed six months ago, people started to pay more attention to it. The channel even tries to compete with the Internet, often giving live streams from the place of events and creating the presence effect, “here and now.” Today the broadcaster creates about three hours of its own product a day and also is launching the format of video blogs. Besides, SK-1 gave for the city’s journalists a television studio, technical equipment, and offered to them to try their hand at making public television. The producer of the channel says that this initiative is in demand. “Usually the mass media are closed, but we want to cooperate, communicate, and become a ground where the residents of the city will be able to develop their creative potential.” At the moment the channel is present in cable networks of Zhytomyr Oblast, and its shows are available on mobile devices and Smart-TV.
