United news marathon in Ukraine

On the first day of the war, the largest Ukrainian media groups canceled the usual programming schedule of their broadcasters and advertising; instead, they started airing purely news broadcasts on most of their TV channels and their international versions. The channels of the 1+1 Media Group broadcast the news marathon of the 1+1 Channel; the Starlight Media channels broadcast ICTV; the television network of Media Group Ukraine broadcasts Ukraine 24; Inter Media Group broadcasts Inter.

At the same time, the media groups agreed to decode the satellite signals of their channels so that people from all over the world could learn the truth and see what is really happening in Ukraine. On February 26, the media groups came together to launch the joint news air: United News. Later, the state TV channel Rada and flagship channel of public broadcasting UA: Pershyi joined them. The news marathon lasts 24/7.

For the uninterrupted information feed, the media groups take turns: each of the newsrooms works five hours a day, the order of the teams is scheduled in advance for 4-5 days. 'United News is a requirement of the time. As broadcasters, our task is to provide truthful information and be with our viewers, readers, and listeners 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We ensure this together by uniting in a joint marathon, which is already spreading far beyond our country', commented 1+1 Media.

'We have 100% teamwork, just an amazing example of self-organization. The most important thing today is unity because together we can do anything', added Starlight Media. 'There is no single leadership in this marathon: today your team can have a morning slot, tomorrow – a night slot, the day after tomorrow – a day slot. This way everyone has time to rest and prepare, this is a relay race in which one team passes the broadcasts to the next one. We agree on the main events, topics, and stop-topics in the general chat of editorial heads For example, following the recommendations of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we do not report military actions and explosions in real-time', completed MGU.

Representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council, the Office of the President, and other structures, on which the course of events depends, join the United News. The marathon producers have very quickly established the exchange of data, materials, and journalists to provide comprehensive information from different regions of the country objectively and promptly. 1+1 and Rada alternately provide 24/7 signal redundancy, so the United News studio can work even in conditions of air alarm. As for the newsrooms, they consist not only of journalists.

For example, the 1+1 Media team, together with the TSN TV service, includes specialists (journalists, cameramen, technicians, editors, information producers, etc.) from the morning show Snidanok and five other information and entertainment projects of 1+1 and 2+2 TV channels. The Starlight Media team includes Fakty (ICTV) and Vikna News (STB) television services. The Media Group Ukraine team includes specialists from the Ukraine 24 and the Ukraine TV channels. By the way, Ukraine 24 broadcasts from its backup studios, as it is impossible to do it from the main studio complex in Kyiv due to the constant threat to the lives and health of the employees (air and missile strikes took place near the company's TV center).

Currently, about 30 Ukrainian TV channels (including 16 of the media groups), OTT platforms, public and commercial radio stations broadcast 'United News', which provides maximum coverage of the country. In addition to broadcasting international versions of the flagship channels of the media groups on an open signal satellite, Ukrainian TV channels grant the right to retransmit their signal outside Ukraine on providers' networks of all types – all this to spread truthful information about russia's war against Ukraine abroad. In the first days of the marathon, more than 40 providers in Poland, Great Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and other countries started airing United News.

Sales teams of all the media groups are primarily working on distributing the state channels. Since the launch of the uatv.world website collecting information on retransmission of Ukrainian broadcasters outside Ukraine, the channels were aired on the Amagi/Rakuten platforms (coverage throughout Western Europe), Magticom and Silknet (Georgia), Zattoo (Switzerland, Germany, and Austria), Tibo (Albania), Silistra TV/Silistra Telecom Solutions (Bulgaria); also Lithuania, Israel, and Canada to be confirmed.

In addition, MGU is actively increasing the coverage of the Ukraine 24 news channel abroad, launching an English version together with its American partner USTVNOW. Preparations for launching the channel on the American OTT platform Sling are almost over; negotiations with Comcast and DirectTV (AT&T) are underway. Ukraine 24 is distributed in Canada, Israel, European countries and presented on OTT platforms Kapang (US/UK), NET1, TVNgo, Zattoo, BossTV, PzazTV.