Russia’s State Duma is considering a new bill that will prohibit foreigners owning more than 20% of OTT services with a Russian audience of more than 50%.
Vedomosti reports that the current legislation limits foreign ownership to 20% only to services whose share of Russian users is less than 50%.
Foreign ownership of over 20% is only allowed with the permission of a government commission, and an exception is made for local service with a Russian audience of over 50%. In this case, any level of foreign ownership is allowed if such a service is a legal Russian entity.
The proposed bill will remove this exception and, according to its author Anton Gorelkin, make the 20% foreign ownership limit in OTT services across the board.
Gorelkin also pointed out that Netflix already operates in Russia in partnership with National Media Group (NMG).
Industry sources believe the new bill is aimed at services such as Russia’s leading OTT platform ivi, which after a proposed IPO will have a foreign ownership share of more than 20%.