Content Summit Russia: National Content in Detail - in Russia and Abroad
Content Summit Russia: National Content in Detail - in Russia and Abroad
On January 31, 2018 within the framework of the CSTB. Telecom & Media’ 2018 exhibition, the conference CONTENT SUMMIT RUSSIA “Russian Content: Trends and Prospects” organized by Midexpo supported by Reed MIDEM (organizers of international exhibitions of content including MIPTV and MIPCOM) in cooperation with Expocontent, the official representative of Reed MIDEM in Russia, Ukraine and CIS countries, was held. The main information partner is Proficinema, professional internet portal.
During the conference marketing studies of the content market in the Russian Federation, prospects of its entering the global market and development of national TV channels outside the Russian Federation, new technologies and trends of the media industry future were presented.
The conference was opened by Darya Petrova, Deputy Director General of the MIDEXPO exhibition company, organizer of CSTB. Telecom & Media exhibition. According to Darya, the Russian content has achieved great progress in terms of production over the recent years. Experts forecast significant increase of sales of the Russian content abroad in the near future. Silvan Foro, the representative of REED MIDEM, made a report on the Russian content in the leading content markets MIPCOM and MIPTV. According to him, while Russia used to primarily purchase foreign content before, now it sells more abroad and is ranked among TOP-10 major content providers. At the same time the share of Russian participants increased by 20% at MIPTV and by 30% at MIPCOM.
During the session “Studies of the Russian Content” leading research companies presented reports on the national television content in general and children’s content in particular. KVG RESEARCH analyzed content of 18 major channels. In 2016, the national content on TV accounted for 72%. The domestic content prevails on all channels, while on STS and TV3 the shares of the foreign and national content are almost equal, and on Pyatnitsa and U foreign content dominates. With regard to the content type, serials, entertainment programs and theatre films lead the group. Solyaris Promo Production, M-Production and Krasny kvadrat are ranked among TOP-10 Russian production companies in terms of the number of premiere hours.
Kirill Tanaev, Director of Modern Media Research Institute, made a report on the theme “Children. Media Consumption. 2017”. The media consumption by children in Russia is increasing in all areas: television, mobile technologies, video hostings, games. This is due to the demographic growth and accessibility of various devices. Children drive increased consumption of video on TV and via internet. They set the fashion for the content, games and toys. This way if the industry is able to offer the modern generation relevant products and content, who will form loyal audiences for many decades to come.
Vera Obolonkina, Director of the Children’s and Youth Programs Department of Pervy kanal. Global Telenetwork JSC, and Yulia Yuzbasheva, Director of the ValidataKIDS research agency, analyzed demand and trends in production and distribution of the children’s content. According to the results of the study held by ValidataKIDS, modern parents want to partially replace upbringing their children with TV set. The education and learning trend is one of the global trends. Therefore, the modern requirements to the content are: it shall be entertaining, educational and motivating at the same time. A children’s channel should show educational and developing programs, programs about animals, cartoons, master classes, music programs, with the Russian content dominating and focus being made on the particular age group.
Among the participants of the discussion panel on the theme “Russian Content in the International Market” were Aleksandr Tsekalo, the founder and Director General of the Sreda film company, Aleksandra Modestova, the Head of the Expocontent company, the official representative of Reed Midem in Russia and CIS, Vlad Ryashin, the founder and General Producer of Star Media, Vasily Soloviev, Russian TV and film producer (Rossiya-88, Ledokol), winner of Grand Prix of the Kinotavr festival for the film “Khoroshy malchik”, Aleksey Tortsyuk, the General Producer of projects, member of the Board of Directors of the Yellow. Black and White studio, Gevond Andreasyan, the Producer of the Bolshoe Kino film company. The discussion was moderated by Nina Romodanovskaya, the Chief Editor of the ProfiCinema internet portal.
The experts shared their experience of work in the international market, in particular they spoke about content sale to the foreign buyer - the experience of each producer is unique. Each of them achieved success and faced challenges during the work.
Aleksandra Modestova noted that despite the obvious increase of the Russian content presence in the international market, they failed to achieve the results that could be achieved if the industry followed a common concept of promotion abroad. “Our products, most recognizable in the international market, are animated ones, in particular “Masha i Medved”. We would like such a popular game serial to be created”, the representative of Reed Midem in Russia and CIS reported.
Aleksandr Tsekalo shared his experience of cooperation with Netflix. According to him, the interest of the platform to the local serial products arose after they had purchased the Spain serial “Narcos”. Though Netflix purchased 6 serials of the Sreda company, Tsekalo noted that “we have to sell almost for nothing”: the price for one episode is comparable with a deal with a large domestic platform - $10-15 for one episode. In May, Sreda plans to show the platform 5 other serials, including Gogol and Trotsky.
Gevond Adreasyan said that the situation with the fiction film profitability in international markets is better. The films of Bolshoe kino partially covered expenses for production due to their showing abroad - in cinemas, on online platforms and TV.
Aleksey Trotsyuk referring to one of the most popular Russian projects, Kukhnya serial, noted that successful international distribution is due to absence of focus on any audience, its universal nature.
Vlad Ryashin analyzed the case of the Mata Hari serial. Despite the sale of the product in 80 countries, including such exotic ones as Nepal and Bangladesh, Star Media failed to achieve the objectives set. “Nevertheless, we were able to analyze our mistakes to take them into account in the future, and international distributors saw our capabilities. In the result Star Media established relations with large partners ready to jointly produce new projects”, the General Producer of Star Media underlined.
Many speakers also think that promotion of the Russian content in the international market requires state support and regulation of the organization process taking into account all its peculiarities.
The discussion “New Technologies and Future Trends of the Media Industry: 360° and VR Video” was moderated by Evgeny Borisov, CEO of Vortex.Pictures, and Ekaterina Filatova, the Head of the AVRA (Added Virtual Reality Association). Among the speakers were Anton Smetankin, the Director General of the Parovoz animation studio, Georgy Molodtsov, the Creative Director of the VRability project, Denis Ryabtsev, the Director General of the AVTO24 TV channel and Drive channel, Maria Lopukhina, the Creative Producer of PROSENSE.TV.
The speakers presented their companies and projects related to VR and Augmented Reality. The Parovoz studio, for example, used these technologies to increase engagement of the audience of its cartoons into the world of their favourite characters, making an interactive game “Volshebny fonar” (“Magic Torch”) where you can interact with subjects in the room of the main girl character of the same name serial, as well as an application for virtual reality glasses “Multi VR” - an interactive cinema where you can select a location and “company” from among characters to watch films with them.
The 360° video technology is used in various areas, entertainment and commercial ones, however its functionality for the cinema, and namely for the imaginative presentation, is as yet limited. Georgy Molodtsov believes that the 360° video is best suited for documentary and animated films. For example, his company produces VR360 videos with participation of disabled persons. They make it possible to find yourself in a particular situation and to “live” it together with characters.
Experts believe that video 360 will be actively developing during next several years. Already today it is possible to use 360 and 180-degree broadcasting where the viewer can merge into the situation and take part in the event happening far from him. Cooperation of VR companies with mobile operators and provision of the unique 360 content to subscribers that they can watch on the phones offers great opportunities. This is the area where PROSENSE.TV and Auto 24 are developing.
Producers of the TV content, TV channels and operators of public associations of communication operators and broadcasters from CIS and Baltic countries met within the framework of the closing discussion “Development of Russian Channels outside the Russian Federation”. The discussion was moderated by Yana Belskaya, the Chief Editor of the Kabelshchik internet portal. The experts discussed entering foreign TV markets by Russian channels and TV distributors and diagnosed stagnation and even reduction of the audience of Russian channels abroad. This is due to the growing cultural gap, change of emigrant generations, legal peculiarities and obstacles in particular territories, as well as to political conflicts. Mikhail Kovalchuk, the Director General of Signal Media, believes that one of the ways to solve these problems may be content localization for foreign television and its translation into the local language. However, some participants of the discussion argued the commercial expediency of this process, especially for territories with a large number of potential viewers.
CSTB. Telecom & Media traditionally pays close attention to the content theme. The discussions held within the framework of the CONFERENCE CONTENT SUMMIT RUSSIA. “Russian Content: Trends and Prospects” revealed great interest to trends and issues of the film and television industry on the part of the participants and visitors and will be continued next year.
The organizers would like to thank partners, speakers and participants of the Content Summit Russia 2018 project and invite everybody to next CSTB. Telecom & Media’2019 exhibition and Content Summit Russia 2019 to be held on January 29 -31, 2019 in Crocus Expo.