The Russian national broadcaster NTV, which is part of Gazprom-Media, has entered into a strategic partnership with ivi, one of the country’s leading OTT services.
As part of the deal, NTV will sell VOD rights (SVOD, AVOD, TVOD, EST) to ivi on the territory of Russia and the CIS countries for releases of premiere series and the channel’s library of franchises. For the next three years, visitors to ivi will have the opportunity to exclusively watch 12 NTV premiere projects and dozens of hours of the channel’s library, and the companies will co-produce at least two series.
Commenting on the partnership, Timur Weinstein general producer of NTV, said: “action-packed NTV series are very popular both on the air and in the digital environment. Now more than 5,000 hours of our content are available to users of Russian VOD platforms, and we are actively working with all market players on different models of viewing and product production. The conclusion of a strategic partnership with the ivi online cinema is a natural step in expanding the map of cross-platform distribution of NTV content. As practice shows, launching projects together with VOD platforms ensures the growth of viewing in both environments, and joint production allows realising truly large-scale stories”.
Anastasia Korchagina, ivi’s commercial content director, added: “for ivi, thevpartnership with NTV is, first of all, a significant enrichment of the line of action series that the audience loves so much. We really believe in this content and we expect it to attract new users. In addition, both parties to this deal are betting heavily on co-production, as this opens up opportunities for major projects, both serials and feature lengths”.
The first package deal between the NTV and ivi was concluded in 2017. As part of the collaboration, ivi got access to both NTV news and series, with content being made available on an SVOD or AVOD basis.
