RT has started a 24-hour broadcasting operation in Serbian on Friday at 7 PM Central European Time. The new channel is called RT Balkan News and has a studio in Belgrade. As of now, it is not only online, but also available via the IRIS TV (Channel 665) and Supernova satellites, as well as in the cable network of the Serbian Telekom.
The precursor of the channel, the news platform rtbalkan_ru, was already launched online and on social media in 2022 and has since developed into a popular information source for the Serbian public. In 2023, the platform’s videos alone had 150 million views on social media, and these numbers doubled in 2024, according to a preliminary count.
RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonjan congratulated the Serbian colleagues and viewers in a video address on the start of full operations. A channel extra for Serbia and the Balkans has been “a dream for many years” and is now being realized:
“We are very happy that, despite all the sanctions, despite the fact that our voice is being suppressed wherever we can, we will be broadcasting here in Serbia, in Europe.”