The Russian public broadcaster VGTRK plans to licence foreign content for distribution on video hosting sites.
Kommersant reports that two companies – Rambler Media and Media Mir – have already received proposals from VGTRK that would effectively see it act as a broker between copyright holders and content providers.
VGTRK began actively licensing its content in October 2008 and subsequently filed a suit against Mail.ru and Vkontakte.ru.
However, it only managed to reach a settlement with the former.
VGTRK’s strategy is likely to prove lucrative financially, with ad spend on internet-delivered content in Russia predicted to grow by 30-50% a year over the next year or two, as opposed to 20% for the traditional internet sector.
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