BSkyB airs Russia Today in HD

BSkyB has begun airing Russian international news channel Russia Today in HD.

Russia Today switched its English-language transmissions to HD in December, following a move to a new facility in Moscow.

The channel cited BARB figures to show that it was the third most-watched news channel in the UK in the third quarter of last year, after BBC News and Sky News. Sky has been carrying Russia Today since 2006.

“The switch to HD is an important step for our network, as HD delivery is not yet offered by many other major international news channels. It’s now up to the satellite and cable TV service providers to make the HD signal available to the viewers,” said Margarita Simonyan, the channel’s editor-in-chief. “We’re very happy that thanks to BSkyB our UK audience can now enjoy the best RT programming in HD so soon after we completed the switch.”