A non-profit online television station Hromadske TV got airtime for the first time since it was launched in November 2013.
Starting Feb. 26, Hromadske (Community) TV will be broadcasted by First National (Pershiy Natsionalniy) Channel, a state-owned TV station. Broadcasts of Hromadske TV will run 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
In its statement, Hromadske TV said it will be providing the video to First National Channel for free as long as the station doesn’t interrupt it with commercials or adds any captions of their own to the video.
Launched by a team of 15 independent journalists in November 2013, Hromadske TV dedicated a large part of its time to coverage of the EuroMaidan street protests.
Its team covered the anti-government protests, pro-government rallies, interviewed politicians and activists and investigated corruption of government officials.
In the first month Hromadkse TV was watched by 7.4 million people, according to the station’s report. According to statistics of Divan.TV service provider, in January Hromadske TV was the third most popular TV station, leaving behind actually television stations like Channel Five and Inter.
First National station was watched by 1.29 percent of the TV audience on Feb. 24, according to the rating of Ukrainian TV stations by MediaBusiness. At the same time, the station reaches 98 percent of the households in Ukraine.
