RT’s panel discussion, “VR & Immersive Journalism: The Future of News”, will take place on the second day of MIPCOM and will bring together leading experts from the news industry as well as documentary filmmakers – including VR professionals from Euronews and London studio Immersiv.ly – to discuss the key challenges, opportunities and best practices in VR news-making. MIPCOM guests will also be able to visit the RT booth and experience panoramic videos produced by the channel using special virtual reality goggles, throughout the duration of the Market.
RT is an early adopter of VR. It was the first TV news channel to launch a dedicated mobile application supporting 360 videos and to set up dedicated pages for VR content on major digital platforms, including Facebook and YouTube, in December 2015.
By the end of 2015, RT presented its first panoramic short documentary titled Donbass: the Ravaged Heart of Europe, filmed in the war-torn city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, and offering a multidimensional look at the conflict. Starting in early 2016, RT has been producing regular news content in the 360-degree format, including footage filmed from the drones and HD live-streams on its YouTube channels. In May, RT showed panoramic footage of the Victory Day Parade in Moscow shot from helicopters, fighter jets and tanks rolling through the famed Red Square. RT has captured remarkable panoramic videos of the massive joint Russia-China navy drills, stunts performed by Russian aerobatic team, the Democratic National Convention in the United States, Paris rallies, aftermath of the Rostov-on-Don plane crash and more.
RT’s 360-degree video content is available on Facebook (in English) and RT’s YouTube channels (in English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, French, and German). RT is a global TV news network that broadcasts 24/7 in English, Arabic and Spanish from its studios in Moscow, Washington, DC, and London. RT has a weekly TV audience of 70 million people in 38 countries and is the most-watched TV news network on YouTube with nearly 4 billion views. RT is the winner of the Monte Carlo TV Festival Awards for best 24-hr newscast, and the only Russian TV channel to become a four-time finalist of the International Emmy Award for News.