ASTANA – The Atameken Business Channel, now broadcasting online and on television from Astana and Almaty, is the country’s first multimedia business news channel.
The ABCTV.kz internet portal is an information platform with integrated TV, which operates only in live-stream mode, presenting the main news of Kazakhstan, the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the world.
Leading business experts, business leaders, government representatives and opinion leaders are invited to participate and give their opinions on analytical programmes and market forecasts.
The Astana Times interviewed head of the Atameken Business Channel Yuliya Valiakhmetova to learn about the channel’s content and future plans.
Graduate of the Moscow Institute of Television and Radio Broadcasting, Valiakhmetova has worked as a reporter and in 2012 headed the Kazakh TV channel. Over the past two years, she has been involved in public relations.
“It was time to create a niche channel dedicated to business, finance and economics. There are some television channels with entertainment content and news programmes in Kazakhstan. The news agencies are also well developed. But it was necessary to launch a channel with functions such as informational news with analytics, television and media; three key platforms connected in one to develop into a multimedia project,” she said.
According to Valiakhmetova, the channel’s developers studied the experience of foreign channels including Bloomberg, CNBC, and RBK before starting the project.
Yuliya Valiakhmetova, Atamaken Business Channel CEO
The channel covers financial, economic and political news; analysis; ratings; conclusions and projections; exchange rates and securities markets; precious metals; raw and non-raw material resources; bank news; stock exchanges; and companies.
“At the beginning, we decided that we would cover business and finance news and present what happens in the country and the situation with our economy. We aim to do this quickly and efficiently and provide analysis by professional experts. The advantage of online television is that the whole world is watching our channel. We started broadcasting on May 23 this year and we had been working in test mode for a month. Our audience coverage is four countries: Kazakhstan, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom. This is a good indicator. Our priority is live streaming. We broadcast in Kazakh and Russian. We plan to introduce English-language content in the near future,” she said.
According to the latest Yandex metric data, 45 percent of the audience is between 25–34 and 25 percent is 45 years old or older.
“We collaborate with the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange [KASE]. [Viewers] can get the information about all currencies and it is important for them to obtain information online. On weekdays, we have news and special programmes such as Otrasli (“Branches”), Aktualno (“Actual”), In Focus and programmes about markets in different sectors of construction, agriculture and business. Weekend content includes programmes featuring test drives, restaurant reviews, et cetera. For example, recently we did a live broadcast of the briefing with [Kazakh weightlifter] Ilya Ilyin, as we could not ignore the doping results,” she said.
The channel is collaborating closely with the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs (NCE) to produce specialised programmes with professionals in their spheres.
“They provide us with analysis and know the situation in the regions down to districts and villages. We also have agreed with VTB Bank and Sberbank to invite experts to take part in some programmes regarding the bank sector. KASE will conduct its own programme every day after trading starting from July. We will analyse the trading day at the end of the day and the whole week and make predictions for the future,” she said.
In the month since it launched, the channel has already produced interviews with exclusive speakers at the Astana Economic Forum by means of its mobile television studio and did live streaming of the Astana Mining and Metallurgy Congress, the KADEX International Exhibition of Weapons Systems and Military Equipment and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting.
“All our projects are unique and we have reporters in all regions. Our country has already formed a business society and the media covering the activities of our business and popularising entrepreneurship, especially with commodity prices falling, are of great importance. What do we see today in our media? News agencies come to the fore because they present information quickly and efficiently. Social networking is left for comments. People are waiting for experts’ comments on their pages in social networks rather than waiting until they come home and watch TV to know what happens in the country. When we compare television and news agencies in terms of providing information, the agencies clearly win. Today, we want to get information quickly and efficiently; we want to get feedback from the audience,” she said.
