In Russia we only had two TV channels. Channel One was propaganda. Channel Two consisted of a KGB officer telling you: Turn back at once to Channel One.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
When I was little, there were three channels.
People only watch six to eight to 10 channels, so if you want to be one of those channels, then you have to create content so strong that people have to come not once, not twice but enough that, behaviorally, they start to feel like, 'That's my channel.'
A generation ago, or two, when there were three channels, plus PBS, and when you needed - when you needed 15 million people to make a living, the media could focus on the broad country. And most people had no choice about getting political information. It was there at 6:30 whether you wanted it or not.
Every so often, there is an article saying the old kind of talk show isn't possible now. In the oldest kind of talk show, you only had the choice of that or two other channels!
I think Channel One was very integral in my career.
When I was growing up, there were just the three channels, so as a nation we all sat down to the same meal at the end of the day. Now there's been this explosion.
Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education.
My notion of the KGB came from romantic spy stories. I was a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education.
There's no denying that television is one of the most powerful propaganda media we've ever invented.
We're lucky in that channels like Science, Animal Planet and Discovery are essentially universal in terms of their appeal. If you wake up in Moscow and put on the Science channel, it doesn't feel like an American channel, it feels like their channel.