História | “There is no censorship and no problems in Russia” - at least, that’s what they say officially in mass media. There is no other opinion in Russia, since 2014 TV Rain – the country’s only independent TV-channel – was taken off air by all satellite and cable providers because of an order from ‘above’. TV Rain, however, hasn’t stopped covering the real state of affairs in Russia. Now one can get an access to truth only through paid subscriptions. In 2015 Vladimir Putin publicly declared to ease the censorship burden. He did it again in 2016 and 2017 during his annual press conferences. But the miracle did not happen. A week before the regular press conference we launched ‘Putin turns on the Rain’. Everyone could get access to TV Rains’s broadcast for 24 hours if they demonstrated the president’s portrait to the web camera. The project was trending both in press and among ordinary users, as it resulted in lots of posts, memes, reaction videos and photos. Right at the press conference, a journalist officially ‘turned Rain on’ using the real president’s face. The officials actively used Rain’s new feature too, as they all have the necessary portrait. As a result - 14,520,076 Media impressions. Conversion rate 16.7% (every sixth person opened the access). For two weeks only the number of subscribers grew by 3.9 % |