HBO may be about to enter the Russian market through a joint venture with the local production company Amedia.
Quoting unnamed sources, Vedomosti and other media outlets say that HBO’s arrival in the country will be led by the well-known investor Leonard Blavatnik, whose company Access Industries owns a controlling stake in Amedia.
The latter has reportedly entered into a joint venture with Time Warner, with investment in the project likely to run into tens of millions of dollars a year, initially to purchase content.
HBO would be distributed by cable and DTH, with the first service likely to carry it being the DTH platform NTV-Plus. Local sources expect viewers will be offered a total of three localised HBO channels.
HBO has been present in the CEE region for 20 years, with Hungary being the first market in the world it launched outside the US.