Boss Of Ukraine’s 1+1 Media Talks Israel-Hamas War, The Need For More International Support & Why Rocky Financial Times May Lie Ahead For His Organization
EXCLUSIVE: The Israel-Hamas conflict was the first major event in nearly two years to knock the Ukraine War off the top of local news bulletins, the boss of one of Ukraine’s biggest media companies has said, as he issues a plea for prolonged support and warns of rocky financial times ahead.
Yaroslav Pakholchuk, who runs 1+1 Media, told Deadline that the “shift in attention” from Ukraine to Israel was “huge” for around the first fortnight of the Hamas war and dominated its news bulletins, although attention has since lowered somewhat. The world’s eyes have been laser focused on Israel since Hamas’ October 7 attack and many commentators have raised concerns that support for Ukraine in its near-two-year-long fight against Russia could dip, with Joe Biden struggling at present to get a Ukrainian funding package through congress.
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“Israeli news became more popular than Ukraine news for that first two weeks,” said Pakholchuk. “Later, attention here started to decrease but we of course noticed that attention has shifted [towards Israel] on a global level. People pay attention to each war. That’s a good sign of course but we do need support here as well.”
Pakholchuk said his organization “supports Israel” in its war against Hamas and rejected the notion that there is any sense of bitterness now that the global focus has pivoted, as he welcomed the help the Ukrainian media sector has received over the past 22 months or so. “Many international and local partners have supported our media in different ways,” he said.
But he added that “less support is a big issue for the whole country on every level,” stating: “No one is obliged to help so it is a question of personal position, state position and whether you support democratic principles. We need help more clearly and definitively than ever.”
When Vladimir Putin’s armies invaded Ukraine nearly two years ago, 1+1 joined with other big Ukrainian media organizations to create a rolling news channel, the United News telethon, with TV production placed on the backburner.
Fast forward to December 2023 and things have slowly started returning to normal, Pakholchuk explained, although nowhere near pre-February 2022. Before the war, 1+1 was making hundreds of shows per year, last year this fell sharply to single figure digits and this year the figure has been in the “tens,” said the CEO.
The focus has been on news programs, talkshows including The Whole Country’s Talking, the odd scripted project such as Red Arrow Studios International-backed anthology series Those Who Stayed and documentaries like Ukrainian Palaces: The Golden Age “because we need to document our history,” said Pakholchuk. 1+1 has also continued with its local version of The Voice, with an emotional final taking place in a Kyiv subway station that was doubling up as a bomb shelter. Scripted will become more of a priority when the mood of the country improves, Pakholchuk added.
The organization runs seven TV channels along with online news platforms and an in-house production unit. It says its channels have a total share of just a shade more than a quarter (25.9%) of overall Ukrainian viewing, although it has been experimenting with its channel offering of late, positioning some channels differently in terms of target age demographics and gender. This, Pakholchuk explained, comes due to the high level of migration abroad since the start of the war, with the circa-6 million people who have left made up mainly of women and children.
Rocky road ahead
The Ukrainian advertising market improved in H2 of this year and there is funding to be obtained, but due to a plethora of shows heading into production next year Pakolchuk said 1+1’s financial picture could get worse before it gets better.
“This year we have mostly used our existing library but soon there will be new projects and that money will not come back immediately,” he added. “The most difficult year will be next year or the beginning of 2025, but we have to do this to grow. If we decided to stay the same size then that would be easier but this is not the case. These investments are high risk.”
News coverage remains the cornerstone and the United News channel is still running as 2024 approaches, along with various other news shows on 1+1’s channels.
“Of course this is the top priority because it is our social function and state mission to inform people about the war and counter Russian propaganda,” said Pakholchuk.
On the subject of propaganda, Pakholchuk said countering misinformation has become more difficult as smaller rival Ukrainian sites have sprung up that he believes are “manipulating facts to attract attention and ratings.”
“This is a huge issue for us,” he said. “It’s like piracy. Unfortunately some small niche players with a small reputation do this and sometimes they are supported by Russian money and sometimes without.”
The misinformation war has been taking place online as 1+1’s digital operation has seen a sharp increase in viewing since war broke out, Pakholchuk said.
The stats are impressive. 1+1’s news Telegram channels have skyrocketed from a few hundred thousand subscribers to around two million and YouTube views have risen tenfold. “Our news channels are producing the same number of YouTube viewers in a month compared to in a year before the war,” added Pakholchuk.
As 1+1 eases back to fullscale TV production, Pakholchuk said the organization will no take its eye off the ball in terms of news. He pointed out that viewing habits differ depending on whether someone lives in a war-ravaged region of Ukraine or one that has steered relatively clear.
“We do not have the answer to what people really want to watch at the moment but the one thing we know is they want the war to end,” he said.
“When there are bombs and rockets in the sky you don’t feel like watching anything but maybe in two or three months when things are calmer you are ready to watch something. Last year the whole country was in terror whereas this year we have some segmentation.”
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