LONDON -- A small London-based company called International Network Television Plc (INT) said Tuesday it would revolutionize Russian television by launching a new national channel on Dec. 31.


"This is the first time that a non-Russian company has been involved in national TV broadcasting in Russia," INT managing director Daniel Marks said in a statement.


"Together with our Russian partners, we intend to revolutionize TV in Russia by bringing fresh blood, new programs, and a new quality and professionalism in approaching a market undergoing a social revolution," he added.


INT, which was set up earlier this year, has invested $5 million so far in the new station called TV3 Russia. It is banking on advertising revenues from its 15-hour-a-day entertainment channel for future funding.


TV3 Russia, which is the trading name of a Russian joint-stock company called Telekanal 27, is promising a feast of advertising, films, chat-shows, morning programs and children's television modeled on Western programs.


It will be Russia's third television channel, broadcasting initially to 100 million people terrestrially via satellite on UHF and VHF frequencies, INT said. But by the end of 1995 INT said it expects to have expanded its broadcast reach to cover the entire population of 150 million.


The channel, in which INT and Russian government agencies each hold a 50 percent stake, aims to pry open new opportunities for Western and Russian companies tempted to target Russia's huge consumer market.