PRODUCERS at RT, the Kremlin-financed media weapon formerly known as “Russia Today”, must have been glowing. More than half of the report on Russian electoral interference which America’s intelligence agencies released on January 6th was devoted to warning of the network’s growing influence. The report noted the “rapid expansion” of RT’s operations and budget—now $300m a year—and cited impressive audience numbers listed on the RT website. The channel, whose professed mission is to present the Russian point of view to foreign audiences, claims to reach 550m people worldwide, with America and Britain as its most successful markets. Conclusion: RT is part of a “Kremlin-directed campaign to undermine faith in the US Government”. That is no doubt true, but whether it is succeeding is a different question. RT has a clever way with numbers. Its “audience” of 550m refers to the number of people who can access its channel, not those who actually watch it. RT has never released the latter figure, but a 2015 survey of the top 94 cable channels in America by Nielsen, a research firm, found that RT did not even make it into the rankings. In Britain last month, it captured just 0.04% of viewers, according to the Broadcast Audience Research Board.

On Twitter and Facebook, RT’s reach is narrower than that of other news networks (see chart). Its biggest claim to dominance is on YouTube, where it bills itself as the “most watched news network” on the platform. As the intelligence report fretfully notes, RT videos get 1m views a day, far surpassing other outlets. But this is mostly down to the network’s practice of buying the rights to sensational footage, for instance of Japan’s 2011 tsunami, and repackaging it with the company logo. RT hopes that the authenticity of such raw content will draw viewers to its political stories too, explains Ellen Mickiewicz of Duke University. This sounds like a canny strategy, but it does not work. RT’s most popular videos are of earthquakes and grisly accidents. Among the top 15, the closest to a political clip is one of Vladimir Putin singing “Blueberry Hill”.

RT is not all strongman serenades. It broadcasts loopy conspiracy theories and fake news stories that encourage distrust of Western governments (the CIA created Ebola; the 9/11 attacks were an inside job; Ukraine crucifies babies). Ofcom, Britain’s media regulator, has rebuked the network, and NATO has called for counter-messaging to combat its propaganda. But the conflation of RT with Russian hacking and espionage has made it out to be a 10-foot monster, says Samuel Charap, a Russia analyst. In fact the Kremlin cut its funds by 10% last year as it struggled to balance the federal budget. With awestruck reviews from American spooks, however, money may flow more freely in the future.