The Russian media business is eager to regulate the Netflix’s activities by law.
The news agency “Tatar-Inform” reports that Sergey Petrov deputy CEO at the “CTC Media”, during the summary meeting of the board of theTatar republican agency governing media and mass communications, expressed the need for regulating by law the operation of services like the Netflix.
According to Mr. Petrov, these companies represent a direct threat to the import substitution process. For the time being, there no exists any single draft law that would regulate the activities of such companies on the Russian media market.
Sergey Petrov points out that foreign video services do not usually have registered offices in Russia, therefore, they are not taxpayers, and do not make any assignments into budget from their income received from Russian consumers. According to him, the Netflix, not being regional, shows no interest in developing domestic-market media products. The service does not make any fiscal payments, do not buy any Russian-made TV products, and just broadcasts Western video products.
The video service Netflix has been operating in the Russian media market as from January 6, 2016, and the company requests 649 – 949 rubles per month for its services. The Netflix provides its services throughout the Russian Federation but the Crimea, where the activities of US companies are banned by sanctions imposed on Russia.
The Netflix’s story starts from 1997. The service specializes in providing paid content, as well as in producing its own film products (“Orange is the New Black”, “House of Cards” and others.).
