U.S. public relations expert, former broadcaster congratulates Kazakh TV on makeover

A U.S. public relations expert and former award-winning broadcaster today offered congratulations to Kazakh TV, Kazakhstan’s major English-language channel, on its makeover that comes on the 25th anniversary of the Republic of Kazakhstan’s independence.

“During a recent visit there I found Kazakhstan to be progressive and beautiful and nothing like what I know most Americans think the country is,” says Glenn Selig, a global PR expert from the international public relations firm The Publicity Agency. “I congratulate Kazakh TV on its new focus and branding effort.”

Mr. Selig says he was so struck by the contrast of what the country is, as opposed to what he expected, he felt duty-bound to do something about it.

He created a PR campaign that targets Americans, which includes a mixture of content marketing and a video that will be released this month on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The #kazakSTANDING STRONG campaign is designed to educate Americans about Kazakhstan.

(LEARN MORE: #kazakSTANDING STRONG campaign)

Kazakh TV says the news on its channel will cover global trends and developments that impact Kazakhstan.

“These will also include world premieres of our culture, art and staging world premieres in Kazakhstan. Fortunately, we have a lot of platforms such as the Astana Opera, for instance, hosting world-scale productions. All this will be in our news,” Channel Director Andrey Tarakov told the Astana Times.

Kazakh TV also wants to be become known abroad, and the place for those in other countries to learn about Kazakhstan.

“We strive to ensure that people overseas know about our channel and learn more about Kazakhstan through our channel,” Mr. Tarakov said.

Kazakh TV already broadcasts in Europe via the satellite service HotBird 13B, in Asia via AsiaSat 5, in North America via Galaxy 19. Kazakh TV is available in more than 118 countries.

“More than 300 million people can watch the channel in different hotel chains and in cable packages. A lot of work has been accomplished, but still a lot needs to be done,” Tarakov told the Astana Times.

Kazakh TV recently merged with Bilim zhane Madeniet.

All content on Kazakh TV is produced locally. But there is a lot of focus now to reach out to a worldwide audience too.

“We want our foreign viewers to learn more about the country and as for our compatriots abroad – we want them to rediscover Kazakhstan thanks to our channel,” he said. “We are planning to continue creating high-quality content in the information and cognitive format. We have a plan which our viewers will find out very soon.”