On June 21, Medical Worker Day, the CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding Alexander Zharov and the chairman of Russia’s Public Movement of Medical Volunteers Pavel Savchuk signed an agreement of cooperation. As part of this agreement, the Holding’s federal TV channels - NTV, TNT, Friday!, TV-3, Match TV, Super, TNT4 and 2x2 - will support the initiatives of the Medical Volunteers movement on an ongoing basis. The agreement also extends to Avtoradio, one of the largest commercial radio stations in Russia, the video service PREMIER, and the assets of Gazprom-Media KIT. Other assets of the Holding could also be called on to provide informational support for the movement in the future.
The Holding’s channels and radio station will support Medical Volunteers by bringing attention to their projects through a variety of media content, including news items on the federal channels NTV and Match TV, integration into the informational program on Friday! channel, flash mobs featuring TNT stars, special video clips on 2x2 and TV-3 channels, various activities in the digital space, and a documentary film on TV-3 whose working title is Spasibo Vracham (Thank You, Doctors). The film will consist of 10 to 15 short stories about doctors and volunteers who saved the lives of their patients in difficult, emergency or unusual circumstances, thus proving that they not only possess professional but also outstanding human qualities. Brought together in one film, these stories will remind viewers that doctors spend their whole lives fighting to save people. It is not only during a pandemic, but every day, that these people fulfill their professional duties without any room for mistakes.
Alexander Zharov, CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding said: “In the past few months, due to the coronavirus epidemic, the importance and prestige of medicine and the medical profession have grown a lot in public opinion. People are changing their attitude to health and those people who help to maintain it, who risk their own lives to save lives. Let us not forget that doctors need support not only in times of crisis. Gazprom-Media assets allow us to connect to a huge audience across all platforms, using the most diverse formats. Thanks to our cooperation with Medical Volunteers, the activities of this organisation will get publicity on a regular basis, while important and relevant messages, for example, on donorship and healthy lifestyles, will reach the widest possible audience.”
A series of intellectual online games, carried out as part of the socio-cultural project “Territoriya KIT (Kino i Televidenie)” (KIT Territory, Film and Television), will be the first joint action between the Medical Volunteers movement and Gazprom-Media. The project was created by the KIT Group of Companies and Central Partnership, and is hosted by the head of Media Press publishing house Alexey Blinov. High stress levels, huge psychological pressure, physical fatigue - these are the factors that volunteers who work in medical establishments during the pandemic have to deal with on a daily basis. The project’s goal is to help people who volunteer to work alongside doctors “switch off”, de-stress and talk to their colleagues. More than 60 “My Vmeste 2020” (We’re in this together 2020) games have been held since the beginning of May. More than 700 volunteers from 85 regions took part in them. Seven games were carried out in partnership with Match TV - “My Vmeste - Rossiiskii Futbol 2020 - Kickoff” (We’re in this together - Russian football 2020 - Kickoff), in which volunteers from 73 regions took part.
From June 11 to 15, a large-scale informational campaign was carried out on all of the Holding’s television channels and digital outlets together with Medical Volunteers. The campaign supported World Blood Donor Day as part of the #Myvmeste (#wearetogether) initiative, and consisted of special animation clips on 2x2 channel, news segments and reports on NTV and editorial content on Avtoradio.
On June 21 the television channels, radio stations and other media resources of Gazprom-Media Holding will join the Russia-wide campaign called “Spasibo medikam” (Thank you, doctors), which coincides with the national Medical Worker Day.
The cooperation agreement also makes provisions for ongoing informational support of the Medical Volunteers projects in the areas of disease prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles.