Russian streamers to merge

Russia’s National Media Group and telco Rostelecom are to merge their streaming services more.tv and Wink under the Wink brand.

The pair will create a streaming joint venture to house what they claim will be a leading Russian streaming offering.

Rostelecom will be the majority shareholders with a 70% stake in the combined company with NMG holding 30%. NMG will transfer a 50% stake in its NMG Studio as well as the more.tv services.

Rostelecom will contribute Wink and its unified streaming platform, which works across both OTT and IPTV offerings.

The pair said that the technical integration of the two services would proceed stage by stage to ensure that quality of experience is maintained.

Prior to completion of the merger of the services, subscribers will coint9inue to have access to Wink and more.tv under the same conditions as before.

Rostelecom and NMG said they were open to options for the further use of themore.tv brand by the JV.

“The Russian media market is undergoing a major transformation in terms of content production, distribution and monetisation. New challenges also mean new opportunities. Combining our capacities in alliance with Rostelecom, the leader in the interactive TV market in Russia, will significantly strengthen the position of the updated online cinema in the competitive Russian market and create an excellent product and service for users. The long-term expertise of NMG as a producer of successful media content for different viewing environments will allow us to effectively build the new player’s content strategy in the interests of consumers and the market,” said Svetlana Balanova, general director of the National Media Group.

“In our joint venture, the participants combine their strengths and competencies. From Rostelecom’s side, this is the fastest growing video service in the country, which in a short time has taken second place in terms of the number of paying subscribers and is among the leaders in terms of customer experience (NPS). On the part of NMG, there are wide competencies and experience in the production of unique film serial content represented by the NMG Studio, as well as the library and the subscriber base of more.tv. Thus, the joint venture will be able to accelerate the development of the combined assets, increase its share in a rapidly growing market and offer the best exclusive content that takes into account the full range of requests and interests of our multi-million audience across the country,” said Mikhail Oseevsky, president of Rostelecom.