Pro-Kremlin media are losing their audience: what are the reasons for the decline in popularity?

Millions of Russian readers and viewers turned away from pro-Kremlin media in 2024. Some publications lost up to a third of their audience, and Channel One fell to fifth place in the TV ratings for the first time in its history. And all this despite the increasing flows of money directed to support state-owned media.

This is reported by the project «We Can Explain», which studied statistics from a study conducted by LiveInternet, reports Voice of America.

Among the most “affected” – tabloid “Komsomolskaya Pravda” (KP), which is considered President Vladimir Putin's favorite newspaper. Over the year, the average daily traffic to the KP website decreased from 6.5 million to 4.3 million UAH.

Somewhat better things are happening at «Moskovsky Komsomolets», which lost 22% of its readers, and «Gazeta.ru» (-14%). The popularity of «RIA Novosti» and «Lenta.ru» fell by 12% and 11% respectively.

The ratings of federal TV channels have also noticeably dropped. According to Mediascope, last year Channel One, which has always been a favorite of Russian TV, in December for the first time in history fell to 5th place in terms of average daily audience. In general, since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the channel has lost about a quarter of its viewers.

Meanwhile, according to the budget, on average, propaganda in 2025 will cost taxpayers 11.4 billion rubles per month or 2.6 billion rubles per week. The main recipients of funds, as before, are state TV channels.

The decline in the popularity of pro-Kremlin media is a fairly stable trend, says sociologist and publicist, former Secretary General of the Union of Journalists of Russia Igor Yakovenko. In his opinion, this is confirmed by measurements carried out on various parameters.

«In particular, a decrease in the audience and number of views of Russian propaganda television has been recorded, – he specified in an interview with ’Voice of America». – In this regard, entertainment channels are now coming to the fore – such as REN TV, TNT, etc. But the ratings of the main “hate channels” are steadily falling. If we talk about individual programs, the main political talk shows of (Volodymyr) Solovyov and (Olga) Skabeeva (both programs are broadcast on the TV channel «Russia-1») fell outside the TOP-50 in 2023, and last year their ratings fell even more».

This is undoubtedly a disaster for propaganda, believes Igor Yakovenko: «The fan clubs of Solovyov, Skabeeva and other leading propagandists have noticeably decreased. Of course, this does not mean that Putin's support has fallen – it has been preserved at the expense of the indifferent. But it is obvious that the supporters of “vicious hatred” are becoming fewer and fewer. To some extent, there is also a certain fatigue of the audience. After all, for almost three years now, the rhetoric of propaganda has not changed. You can turn on Russian television at any moment, and you will hear a set of the same clichés».

The situation «cannot be flooded» with money, the journalist is sure. «The hope that pro-Kremlin media outlets can at least partially regain their popularity through the infusion of huge funds is groundless. People are tired and are switching to entertainment programs. However, this does not mean that propaganda has weakened. It continues to work and is quite effective, but has largely moved to other platforms – telegram channels, social networks. And all this, of course, is also abundantly funded. As for the main formats, “hate channels”, they are preserved as a kind of rarity», – summarized Igor Yakovenko.

The Russian budget for 2025 includes 137.2 billion rubles for financing state TV channels, media outlets and Internet projects. This is 15.9 billion rubles more than a year earlier.

We should be cautious about possible conclusions about the loss of influence of state media in Russia, warns Andrey Kolesnikov, a columnist for newtimes.ru and Novaya Gazeta, in a comment to the Russian service of the Voice of America.

In his opinion, there are two main factors here: «The general decline in interest in traditional media (TV, newspapers; a decrease in their audience share; young people are not very interested in such types of media), and fatigue from the politicized and militarized content that is emerging. Nevertheless, state media still determine the dominant thinking of the majority of the country's population and spoil the tastes and ideas of Russians».

We must understand that the Kremlin discourse is very actively penetrating social networks and in general everything that can be called media, Andrey Kolesnikov continued: «For example, in Telegram, Z-channels successfully compete with any anti-war and anti-Putin resources. And the blocking of YouTube has still significantly reduced the attendance of alternative channels and streaming. The fact that KP («Komsomolskaya Pravda») receives state funding – is a tabloid that has already fiercely broadcasted pro-Putin and pro-war views, that is, in essence, it is state-owned (I think they have a lot of preferences). So it is logical to make the “secret” “explicit”».