I recently visited two exhibitions devoted to new developments in television – both in terms of form and content.

The first exhibition was in Brighton. There I was impressed by the range and quality of informative TV programmes produced by the BBC. The products on show at the exhibition were attractive, on the one hand, for their content, and on the other, for their quality, because they were designed using the latest techniques. I think if Russia was to try to produce something with this type of quality and content television here would be quite different.

The exhibition in Cannes was on a bigger scale and involved not just the BBC, but contributions from many other leading companies on the TV
market, including some American ones. Also in Cannes I had a few working meetings, in particular with a Chinese producer who was presenting a joint Russian – Chinese TV series.

Overall, my impressions of the exhibition were positive. When you get into that atmosphere you begin to appreciate television from the inside. You learn about the new techniques and criteria used to create TV programmes of real quality and substance and you realize what a serious and responsible business it is. Of course, I already know quite a lot thanks to my show “Steps Towards Success”, and I also chair the Public Council of the National Media Group, but this was something different…different specialist, different techniques and a different outlook. I think it’s vital not to get hung up on your own vision of something – you have to pay attention to other people’s ideas and suggestions.

After seeing that exhibition you’ll no longer be surprised why, for example, the West dominates the information arena. It’s because they know the techniques better, they understand more about how people perceive things… And of course language plays a pretty important role here, too. The English language is present everywhere; in effect it’s become the international language of communication. And this is something we dropped the ball on: – there used to be so many students coming here to study Russian! From Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe – that was a serious resource for promoting Russian culture throughout the world. But still, not all is lost: the more interesting Russia becomes, the more people will study Russian.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to visit those exhibitions in Brighton and Cannes. It was a new page in my life. And it’s not only the process of television itself that interests me, but also the techniques that are used to produce superb TV programmes. I like being amongst this creative -intellectual environment, because where creativity and knowledge meet is where you find development and progress…just like in sport.