Russia’s TV production sector finds itself in a difficult situation.
Kommersant reports that while the amount of content produced in the country has now returned to pre-crisis levels, production companies have yet to attain the same revenues they made a few years ago.
In an analysis of data recently published by Spark-Interfax, it adds that Red Square studio, which produces programming for Channel One, has seen its revenues fall for two years in a row. In 2016, they slumped by 11% to R4.4 billion (€62.5 million).
Meanwhile, the company Russkoye, which produces content mostly for Rossiya 1, saw its revenues fall from R2.6 billion in 2015 to R2.2 billion last year.
On the other hand, in a rare exception,Solaris Promo Productions (SPS), which produces content for the TNT channel, saw its revenues double to a record R9.58 billion in 2016. Its flagship programme Dom-2 appears on the channel daily.
Production costs have increased significantly in Russia and the sector has also been hit by the end of sales to Ukraine.
These were worth some $200 million, or 20% of total revenues.
