Five major Russian media companies are looking into the possibility of launching a local equivalent of Hulu.
According to Kommersant, First Channel, Gazprom-Media, VGTRK, National Media Group (NMG) and CTC Media plan to launch a joint online platform and are committed to the development of the project, which would echo the US service, owned by Walt Disney, 21st Century Fox and Comcast through their content divisions.
However, if they fail to reach an understanding they will continue to develop their own online platforms.
Kommersant points out that the idea of launching a joint Russian online platform is not new, having been proposed by the Media Communications Union (MKS) two years ago. No meaningful discussions nevertheless took place.
A decision on the current plan is unlikely to be made before September.