Oleksiy Semyonov, a TV manager known for launching several of Ukraine’s most popular political television channels, is starting a new channel prior to local elections set for October 2020.
The channel, currently named Kyiv.Live, is set to begin broadcasting in Kyiv in late August, Semyonov told the Kyiv Post. He denied that the channel is being launched to influence voters prior to the elections.
“To change the opinion of residents of a megapolis, you have to work with them for a very long time,” said Semyonov. “A city channel that has a month before elections can’t demonstrate any real influence on public opinion.”
Not everyone is eager to believe that. Political commentator Volodymyr Fesenko says a regional television channel that starts airing a few months before local elections raises suspicion that political interests are involved.
“No matter who says what,” he added.
In Ukraine, television channels are predominantly controlled by oligarchs and politicians promoting their views. Semyonov launched and managed several of the most notorious ones, including Channel 112, NewsOne, and Pryamyi.
On May 13, Semyonov refused to disclose who owned the new channel. Several sources told the Kyiv Post that the owner was Vadym Stolar, a notorious Kyiv developer and a lawmaker elected on the ballot of the pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party.
Stolar confirmed his involvement on May 14, in a comment to Novoe Vremya news outlet. “Yes, it’s true. I want to create an independent regional news channel,” said Stolar.
Kyiv.Live will be Stolar’s first media asset. Back in 2019, Semyonov said that launching a news television channel in Ukraine costs $7 million.
Maker of TV channels
Semyonov is a well-known media producer, credited with creating some of Ukraine’s most-watched news channels — all of which had clear political motives.
Since 2013, he has launched a TV channel every two years. They have all included the same features: a strong focus on political news and opinions, little to no entertainment content and famous anchors.
The first one was Channel 112 back in 2013. The pro-Russian news channel was linked to Oleksandr Yanukovych, son of then-President Viktor Yanukovych, and his business partner, oligarch-in-the-making Serhiy Kurchenko.
After launching Channel 112 and running it for two years, Semyonov left in 2015. The same year, he took charge of the NewsOne television channel, completely rebranding it. NewsOne became yet another news-and-views channel with a pro-Russian bent, this time owned by pro-Russian politician Yevhen Muraev.
Two years later, Semyonov switched to a new project: He launched Pryamyi in 2017. Pryamyi is officially owned by Volodymyr Makeyenko, a former lawmaker of Yanukovych’s disgraced Party of Regions, but its coverage very visibly leaned toward then-President Petro Poroshenko. Experts widely believed it was launched to support his re-election campaign.
In 2019, Poroshenko lost the election. Just two months later, Semyonov left Pryamyi.
But he soon found a new job. Semyonov took over the media holding Novyny that united channels 112, NewsOne and one more, ZIK.
The three channels officially belong to Taras Kozak, a lawmaker with the pro-Russian Opposition Platform — also Stolar’s party. Kozak bought them on a spree in 2018-2019.
Media and political experts believe that Kozak is only a nominal owner of the media holding, pointing out that his official income is nowhere near enough to buy and support three TV channels.
As of 2017, Kozak had $500,000 in cash and owned two houses. But the next year, he spent at least $4.4 million to buy two TV channels. There has never been an official investigation into this purchase.
Experts point to Viktor Medvedchuk, Kozak’s close associate, the unofficial representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine and one of the leaders of the Opposition Platform. They believe that he is the most probable real owner of the three channels. Both Medvedchuk and Kozak deny it.
The coverage on all three channels has been very favorable to Medvechuk and his allies. Together, they hold 5 percent of the media market, yet are among the most watched news channels in Ukraine.
Semyonov remains the head of the holding but says that his new venture, Kyiv.Live channel, won’t be a part of it.
The chart shows how much of the Ukrainian TV time is controlled by the oligarchs. It is based on the ratings of 27 TV channels in May 2019, all of which are directly owned or controlled by oligarchs. Most of them are among the most popular ones in the country. Out of top 20 most-viewed TV channels, almost all belong to oligarchs. In most cases, the ownership is direct. *In the case of Petro Poroshenko, he doesn’t directly own Pryamyi channel, but media experts have attributed the ownership to him or his circle based on the channel’s heavy bias towards the ex-president. Similarly, while a lawmaker Taras Kozak is the official owner of channels NewsOne, Channel 112, and ZIK, observers attribute the real ownership to his political boss Viktor Medvechuk. Both deny it.
Source: Big Data UA rating agency
Stolar
For Stolar, Kyiv.Live will be his pilot media asset. With an estimated wealth of $73 million as of 2019, Stolar can afford a TV channel.
“Stolar is a developer whose interests are tied to Kyiv,” says Fesenko. “For him, such a television channel can be useful as a marketplace, a (political) tool.”
By marketplace, Fesenko means a longstanding practice in Ukrainian politics were media owners side with different political candidates prior to election, giving them access to the audience and favorable coverage in exchange for cash or future favors.
Stolar’s past suggests that he knows how to strike political deals.
Stolar is politically unpretentious, serving as a Kyiv council lawmaker for pro-Western Our Ukraine party of ex-President Viktor Yushchenko, later siding with Yanukovych’s Party of Regions in parliament, only to switch sides once again being elected as an independent to the Kyiv council later siding with Poroshenko.
In 2019 he once again was elected into parliament, now with a pro-Russian party.
Additionally, Stolar has been linked to several controversial construction projects in the capital, and has enjoyed a close relationship with Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, with whom he was caught traveling on a private jet back in 2017.
“(Stolar) needs influence over Kyiv,” says Fesenko. A television channel is how such influence is reached.
