Russians Are Getting Bored With Propaganda

The largest state TV channels faced double-digit audience decline.

Russians' interest in federal propaganda TV channels continues to decline, according to Mediascope data studied by "We can explain". Thus, the country's three main TV channels - Rossiya 1, NTV and Channel One - have lost an average of about 14% of their audience over the past four months. The leader of the decline was NTV, whose audience fell by a third - 33%. "Channel One" lost 18.2%, "Russia 1" - 10%.

The preferences of viewers have also changed. If in April 2024 the top three programs were news programs, in April 2026 they were entertainment programs ("Songs from the Heart", "Hello, Andrey"). The failure of Vladimir Solovyov's propaganda show is particularly noticeable. Whereas in April 2024, two editions of his "Evening" were ranked 18-19, in April 2026 they are only 68th and 96th.

In February, the most popular TV projects (for example, the series "First Department-5" on NTV) had ratings above 6%, but in May the ratings were already below 5%. Even the broadcast of the Victory Parade - traditionally one of the most rated events - this year showed the worst results, "MO" notes.

The decreasing interest of citizens in propaganda is one of the most noticeable manifestations of the growing protest potential, says political scientist Abbas Gyallamov: "We are fed up with its deceitfulness, its inadequacy, its arrogant tone, its faces that have not changed for decades."

The decline in Russians' interest in TV propaganda has been going on for decades. Thus, the Pointmedia project, based on Mediascope data, previously reported that from 2017 to 2024, the audience of state television collapsed by 25-26 million people (40%) of viewers. At the same time, the monthly audience of YouTube in Russia, according to Mediascope, grew by 7 million people over the first two years of the war in Ukraine, while Google's audience grew by 8 million people.

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