Hello satellite

Ivan is the owner of the Russian shop in Mechelen. Originally he is Byelorussian, but being brought up in the USSR he absorbed the language and the culture of Russian people. He considers Russian language as an inevitable part of his education and wants his children to join this reach culture too. Ivan thinks the experience of Soviet Union, where people’s friendship was the basis of the statehood can be good example even for Belgium of nowadays. He is interested a lot in politics, especially concerning his native country. Especially Ivan likes to compare different approaches and different news feeds of Russian, Byelorussian and American news cervices. He has a cable TV (satellite TV) and the opportunity to watch all those channels. For instance, he can watch both Russian and American BBC news cervices during the same evening in order to have different opinions and different angles. But of course he prefers to listen to his mother language. It is nothing about the quality of the news services but mainly nostalgic and patriotic feelings. Though he says his children already prefer more the local television.
His Russian friends and acquaintances mainly do the same as Ivan. So as they are far from their country they become sometimes even more interested in a political and social life then their compatriots who didn’t leave the country. That’s why they watch more Russian news than average Russian citizens do. Russians, who live in Belgium look for the most reliable information about their motherland, that’s why they try to use as many sources of the information as possible.
Mainly they watch Russian progovernmental channel (Russian Public Television) in the evening. There you can find hot news and after a soap opera. Satellite TV companies have even a special service they offer the transition of the news with 2, 4 or 6 hours delay. The other channels are also available via satellite. Among them you can find second biggest TV channel – Rossia, Entertainment TV – STS,  the channel, that brings cultural news – Kultura, Russian version of MTV -  Muz-TV, the first English-speaking TV channel in Moscow – Russia today and many others. Mainly expats and immigrants are interested in news, but they also watch popular soap operas and entertaining shows before and after the news block.
There are also companies lately that give you a possibility to watch Russian television and to listen to Russia radio channels online, that’s much cheaper than the satellite and gives you much more variety and choice.