The shared platform will be set up “from scratch”.
Russian media holdings “Channel One”, “Gazprom-Media”, VGTRK, “National Media Group” (NMG) and “CTC Media” are eager to create a single video service for users to get available the content of all the channels of these groups. This information was confirmed to the “Kommersant” by sources at three companies, as well as by the manager involved in setting up that common platform.
As the edition was informed, the option of buying any existing online cinema is not even considered. For the time being, five media holdings are holding project economic feasibility consultations. Otherwise, each of them will go on developing own video service.
Let us recall that almost all these groups have been already developing their own content platforms, i.e. there is an online showcase of “Gazprom-Media” on Rutube.ru, the website Kino.1tv.ru offers to view for a fee the projects of “Channel One”, while TV series of “CTC Media” can be found on Videomore.ru.
According to the media holdings’ managers, all key decisions will be adopted not until September. It also remains unclear the TV groups’ content monetization, which is still under negotiation. But it is assumed that the choice preference would be given to a mixed model allowing for viewing content both free of charge with advertising, and for a fee without it. This model is applied, for example, by one of the largest Russian online cinemas Ivi.ru.
