United News (telethon)

United News (Ukrainian: Телемарафон «Єдині новини», romanized: Telemarafon «Yedyni novyny») or UA together (Ukrainian: UA разом) is a joint information telethon which was launched on February 24, 2022, at the start of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It began broadcasting at the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, as #UAtogether (Ukrainian: #UAразом, romanized: #UArazom) and broadcast on Rada TV, the official television channel of the Verkhovna Rada.

United News
UkrainianЄдині новини
GenreNewscast
Live television
Country of originUkraine
Original languageUkrainian
Production
Running time6 hours
Production companies
Release
Original network
Original releaseFebruary 24, 2022 (2022-02-24) –
present
Hashtag: #UAразом

Since February 26, 2022, television channels owned by four Ukrainian media groups, namely 1+1 Media Group, Starlight Media, Inter Media Group, Media Group Ukraine (until its closure on July 22, 2022) and My-Ukraina (since November 8, 2022), as well as public television channel Pershyi and Rada TV continued to broadcast around the clock to bring verified information to the public regarding the war. Each channel forms its own slot lasting 6 hours.

History
Former title card before the closure of TRC Ukraine on July 22, 2022
Former title card before the addition of My – Ukraina on November 8, 2022

At the initiative of the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko on February 16, 2022, a telethon was held on all TV channels of Ukraine on the topic of unity from 8:00 to 10:00 and from 19:00 to 22:00. A single information platform for strategic communication UA together was created at the request of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to ensure daily informing the public about the security situation and the activities of state bodies.[1]

Since the beginning of Russia's attack on Ukraine on February 24, at 6:30 am, all platforms of Suspilne, Ukraine's national public broadcaster, worked in the mode of an information marathon and all of the broadcaster's television channels (UA:First, UA:Kultura and all of its regional channels) was regulated by the government and their feed was temporarily transferred to that of Rada TV. Since the imposition of martial law in Ukraine on the same day, TV channels 1+1, UA:First, Rada TV, ICTV, STB and Ukrayina 24 have been broadcasting alternately, despite the hostilities, while in the studio or in bomb shelters.[2]

On February 25, the StarLightMedia-owned Novyi Kanal, which was listed as one of the initial participants of the telethon, instead dedicated all of its airtime to airing children's movies and cartoons. They were followed by the 1+1 Media Group-owned TET, and the Media Group Ukraine-owned NLO TV. On the same day, Suspilne resumed live broadcasts, although these broadcasts were only available through Facebook and YouTube. All digital television channels in Ukraine carried UA:First's signal until February 26.

On February 26 at 9:20 a.m., Suspilne resumed broadcasting on television with its own marathon titled "Together we will win" («Разом переможемо»). Since February 28, Pershyi hosted its own telethon. Ukrainian Radio also runs a marathon using clippings from a telethon.[3]

Free Media Holding-owned channels 5 Kanal and Priamyi kanal, as well as the internet television station Espreso TV broadcast their own alternative telethons.

On April 3, several networks, including 2+2, Enter-Film, Indigo TV, K1, Mega, NTN, and OCE, left the telethon and resumed their regular programming. They were followed by STB, which left the telethon on April 18. The channel's news team, however, continued to work in the telethon.

On July 22, television networks owned by Media Group Ukraine, including Ukrayina and Ukrayina 24, left the telethon after Rinat Akhmetov, the beneficial owner of Media Group Ukraine, returned the licenses of all media assets of the company to the state, causing all the networks owned by the company to stop broadcasting and for the company to halt its production of its assigned 6-hour slot in the telethon.[4]

Production

The participating Ukrainian media groups (1+1 Media Group, Inter Media Group, Rada TV, Starlight Media, Suspilne, My – Ukrayina and formerly, Media Group Ukraine) take turns in helming United News, with the news divisions of each media group working five hours a day and their order of handling the program scheduled four to five days in advance.[5]

In addition to representatives from the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and the Office of the President of Ukraine, which co-operated in establishing the program,[6] specialists from the participating media groups (which include journalists, cameramen, technicians, editors, information producers, etc.) co-operated with the production of the program. 1+1 Media Group's team is composed of people who work for their TSN news service program, 1+1's morning show Breakfast with 1+1 and five other information and entertainment projects from 1+1 and sister channel 2+2. Starlight Media's team is composed of workers from Fakty and Vikna-Novyny, the respective news programs of ICTV and STB. However, Media Group Ukraine, whose team is made up of workers from its Ukrayina and Ukrayina 24 TV channels, broadcasts from its backup studios instead of the program's main studio complex in Kyiv due to the constant threat to their employees as air and missile strikes took place near the company's TV center.[5]

1+1 and Rada TV alternately provide 24/7 signal redundancy, so that the program's studio can work even when an air raid siren is sounded nearby.[5]

Rada TV also provided alternate feeds of the program in English and Russian through their YouTube channel. The program's live English and Russian interpretation is done by volunteers.[7]

Broadcasters

In Ukraine

As of March 28, about 30 Ukrainian TV channels (including 16 from the participating media groups), over-the-top (OTT) platforms, public and commercial radio stations broadcast United News, which provides maximum coverage in the country.[5] Some of the OTT platforms that carry the program include 1+1 video, Kyivstar TV, Vodafone TV, MEGOGO, Omega TV, Sweet.tv and YouTV.[7]

Participating broadcasters in Ukraine
Owner Current participating channel(s) Former participating channel(s) Presenters
Suspilne Pershyi, partial Suspilne Crimea and Suspilne Novyny Suspilne Regional (except Suspilne Crimea), Suspilne Kultura Andriy Dikhtyarenko, Denys Zepsen, Yevhen Agarkov, Vyacheslav Afutin, Anatoly Yerema, Anna Cherednychenko, Dmytro Khorkin (until April 15), Inna Moskvina
1+1 Media Group 1+1 Marathon, partial 1+1 Ukraine (night time), 1+1 International, 2+2 (night time) and UNIAN TV TET, Paramount Comedy (now Comedy Central), Bigudi, Kvartal TV Solomiya Vitvitska, Marichka Padalko, Ruslan Sharipov, Svyatoslav Grynchuk, Nataliya Moseychuk, Maksym Sukhenko, Yevgen Plinskyi, Natalya Ostrovska, Alla Mazur, Stas Yasynskyi, Kateryna Nesterenko, Yevgen Kuksin
Inter Media Group Inter, K2, Zoom Enter-Film, K1, Mega, NTN, Inter+ Anastasia Daugule, Oleksandr Vasylchenko, Iryna Baglai, Liliya Nalyagaka, Oleksiy Fadeev, Oleksandr Prosyanyk
Starlight Media ICTV OCE, STB, Novyi Kanal, ICTV Ukraine (now ICTV2) Petro Demyanchuk, Orest Drymalovskyi, Yana Brenzei, Oksana Sokolova, Andrii Kovalskyi, Vadym Karpyak, Olena Frolyak, Anastasia Mazur, Serhii Kudimov, Yuliya Senyk, Vyacheslav Tsimbalyuk
Parliament of Ukraine Rada TV Hanna Homonai, Olena Morozova, Vadim Gerasimovich, Tetyana Goncharova, Vadim Kolodiychuk, Artem Bibik, Kateryna Pavlova, Nazar Dovgiy, Andriy Sinitsyn, Oleksandr Desyatnikov, Olesya Nitsevich, Anton Strashko, Olga Butko, Maksym Zborovskyi
Ihor Petrenko (de jure) My – Ukrayina Oleg Panyuta, Lyudmila Dobrovolska, Olena Tsintila Mykyta Mikhalov, Marina Kuhar, Ihor Pupkov, Olena Chabak, Maxim Sikora, Olga Hrytsyk, Maria Skyba, Vera Sverdlyk, Viktoriya Malosvitna, Kostyantyn Linchevskyi, Bohdan Mashai, Yulia Galushka
Media Group Ukraine Ukrayina, Ukrayina 24, Indigo TV, NLO TV, Football 1, Football 2, Football 3 Victoria Malosvitna, Maxim Sikora, Marina Kuhar, Olga Hrytsyk, Yuriy Bibyk, Nikita Mikhalov, Elena Tsintila, Maria Skyba, Oleg Panyuta, Vera Sverdlyk, Tigran Martirosyan, Kostyantyn Linchevskyi, Andriy Bulgarov, Lyudmila Dobrovolska, Vasyl Pekhno, Vitaly Prudius
Other broadcasters Full retranslation: ATR, Obozrevatel TV, Pravda Tut
Partial retranslation: Espreso (night time), Apostrophe TV, Kyiv TV (night time), XSPORT (night time), 8 Channel, Black Sea TV
Foreign channels: Belsat, Delfi TV, TVR3		 4 Kanal, Live, Typical Kyiv, Odesa Live, ECO TV, XSPORT+, First Business Channel, New Christian, UNC, Televsesvit, 5 kanal, 24 Kanal, Pryamiy kanal

Outside Ukraine

In addition to broadcasting international versions of the participating media groups' flagship channels (now in 1+1 International (evening time), previously Inter+ and ICTV Ukraine) on an open signal satellite, Ukrainian TV channels have granted the right for international broadcast providers to retransmit their signal outside Ukraine on their various platforms, including on Belsat (weekdays daylight retranslation), Delfi TV (night retranslation), TVR3 (morning and evening retranslation) and terrestrial television (DTT) in Poland (Pershyi, HbbTV), Estonia (Rada TV, DVB-T) and Latvia (Rada TV, DVB-T). In the first days of the marathon, more than 40 providers in Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, and other countries have started airing United News.[5]

References
  1. "В среду все телеканалы Украины покажут телемарафон на тему единения – Ткаченко". Ukrayinska Pravda (in Russian). Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  2. "Хроніка українсько-російської війни онлайн". ukrainenews.fakty.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  3. ""UA: Перший» розпочинає в телеефірі цілодобовий «Спецефір Напад Росії на Україну"". stv.detector.media (in Ukrainian). February 27, 2022. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
  4. "Канали Ахметова вийдуть із виробництва спільного телемарафону 22 липня, — джерело". detector.media (in Ukrainian). July 15, 2022. Retrieved August 31, 2022.
  5. "United news marathon in Ukraine". Prensario Internacional. March 28, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  6. Goldbart, Max (February 26, 2022). "Ukraine: Media Groups Join Together For 'United News' & Urge World To Turn Off Russian Channels". Deadline. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  7. "Де дивитись національний телемарафон єдиних новин #UAразом українською, англійською, російською". Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (in Ukrainian). March 8, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
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