Yesterday at 23:53
The number of subscribers of the YouTube channel FREEDOM, the basic digital platform of the Ukrainian foreign broadcasting channel FREEDOM, which is broadcast in Russian abroad, has reached 1 million. Views: 699 million*
The FREEDOM YouTube channel became the first of the YouTube channels of Ukrainian state and public broadcasters to receive the “golden button,” which indicates the correctness of the development strategy chosen by the SE “MPFB” team. Since the broadcast and website of the FREEDOM TV channel in Russia are blocked, the use of YouTube allows the FREEDOM channel to convey the truth about Russia’s war against Ukraine and counter the myths of hostile propaganda among the Russian audience.
The FREEDOM YouTube channel is the main digital platform of the FREEDOM TV channel, which is part of the state enterprise “Multimedia Foreign Broadcasting Platform Ukraine”. The channel broadcasts live here, as well as all the content produced by the state enterprise “MPFB” and partner channels, which is broadcast on FREEDOM: an information marathon, documentaries, social and journalistic projects, author interviews, etc.
In December 2023, the top five foreign countries in terms of views of the FREEDOM YouTube channel included Russia (56.6%), Kazakhstan (4.9%), Uzbekistan (3.4%), Germany (2.7%), Belarus ( 2.6%), views from Ukraine in December amounted to 11.8%. In the list of cities where FREEDOM is most watched through the YouTube service, Russian cities are also in the first positions: in December these were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Yekaterinburg.
“We launched the FREEDOM brand in March 2022, and today’s result is a journey of almost two years. Objectively, the peak growth in subscribers was at the beginning of the full-scale invasion and in September 2022, during the liberation of the Kharkiv region and the beginning of mobilization in the Russian Federation. However, the need of the Russian-speaking audience abroad for truthful information about Ukraine must remain high, and digital allows it to be conveyed where other opportunities, primarily linear television, are blocked by censorship, and to do this from a pro-Ukrainian position. The highest, more than 50%, views of the FREEDOM YouTube channel are from the Russian Federation, almost 90% are from abroad, indicating that our content reaches the priority audience. In 2023, we launched the daily final news release “Our Time”, actively developed a line of projects that focus on crisis phenomena in Russia, raise topics of decolonization and the revival of the national consciousness of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation, and began implementing a special project to return home children abducted by Russia. In 2024, we plan to strengthen these areas, as well as implement several projects for the presidential elections in the Russian Federation, the tenth anniversary of the occupation of Crimea by Russians, the anniversary of the explosion of the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and other important events,” said Yulia Ostrovska, director of the state enterprise “Multimedia Platform for Foreign Broadcasting of Ukraine”.
Also, to maximize coverage of the target audience, SE “MPFB” is actively developing the YouTube channel FREEDOM.LIVE, which contains analytical materials, interviews, documentary and journalistic programs, and original projects. The total number of subscribers of the YouTube channels FREEDOM and FREEDOM.LIVE exceeded 1.7 million, and the total number of views – 1 billion.
Statements and addresses by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, military and international analytics, news about events on the battlefield and “meat assaults” of the Russian Federation, videos with Russian prisoners of war, information about bullying in the ranks of the Russian military, news about migration policy receive high attention from Russian-speaking audiences abroad. Russia and the attitude of Russians towards labor migrants from Central Asian countries. Several examples of videos from the FREEDOM YouTube channel with over a million views:
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal on the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine (4.7 million views);
- an emotional statement by a World War II veteran about Putin (4 million views);
- video of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv (3.8 million views);
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeal to Russians regarding mobilization (2.8 million views);
- appeal to Russian prisoners of war not to go to war (1.9 million views).
In the line of documentary projects touching on the issues of transformation of Russia, decolonization of its indigenous peoples, restoration of historical memory and justice, the highest rates are received by programs dedicated to the historical fate of the peoples of the Caucasus, in particular Chechnya and Dagestan, Tatars and Bashkirs.
*Note Data given in the material as of December 31. 2023. Data sources: analytical tools of digital platforms; Google Analytics; YouTube Studio channel FREEDOM.
