The National Media Group (NMG) has registered a company named Vitrina TV, paving the way for the launch of what has been described as a Russian equivalent of Hulu.
According to RBC and AKTR, the co-owners of the project, which was first reported on in the Russian media in July 2016, are the First Channel, CTC Media and VGTRK.
Although Gazprom Media was initially a co-signatory to the ‘TV Showcase’ agreement signed by the three parties, it is no longer involved in the project. One of the reasons for this is understood to be that it became the co-owner of an online platform named Ruform last year and is now operating a service with exclusive content.
Alexei Byrdin, the general director of the Internet Video Association, which includes such platforms as ivi, Megogo and TV1000 Play, has meanwhile provided a critical assessment of the proposed new service. In his view, the infrastructure for professional content delivery is already in place and broadcasters should not be considering creating it again from scratch.
Instead, they should entrust distribution to existing players and focus their efforts on internet audience measurement and the unified sales of online and offline advertising.
