REN TV (1997)

REN TV is one of the largest private federal TV channels in Russia. Founded by Irena Lesnevskaya and her son, Dmitry Lesnevsky, who had been running REN TV as a production house for other national Russian television channels, it has broadcast since 1 January 1997. Its target audience is a young to middle-age city worker. Even though it focuses mostly on the audience in the 18 to 45 demographic, REN offers programming for a wide range of demographics, since the target viewer has a family and respects family values. The channel has won 13 TEFIs awards presented by the Academy of Russian Television.

REN TV's network is a patchwork of 406 independent broadcasting companies in Russia and the CIS. REN's signal is received in 718 towns and cities in Russia from Kaliningrad in the West to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the East. It has a potential audience of 113.5 million viewers with more than 12 million of them living in Moscow city and Moscow Oblast . REN TV works with 10 broadcaster affiliates and 19 cable operators in the CIS and Baltic states; 181 cities can receive REN TV's signal.

By many political fringe groups REN TV is considered to be "one of the last bastions of free media" in Russia. It is the only channel up-to-date which covers the meetings of socialist and liberal groups and takes interviews from leaders of the political fringe.