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- New virtuality: by the end of the year, online cinemas will reduce the release of projects by 20%
New virtuality: by the end of the year, online cinemas will reduce the release of projects by 20%
By the end of 2025, online cinemas will reduce the release of original films and TV series by 20% compared to last year, TelecomDaily and the Internet Video Association predict. Companies have managed to fill the content shortage that arose during the departure of foreign majors, so there is no serious need for extensive production of films and TV series. In addition, foreign projects began to return to the platforms.
The amount of content in online cinemas
By the end of 2025, online cinemas will reduce the amount of original content by 20% compared to 2024, Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily, told Izvestia. According to the company, 158 original films and TV series were released to the market last year. The growth compared to 2023 was only two projects.
According to Denis Kuskov, with rare exceptions, the content from other countries that was released in early 2022 (Turkish, Korean, Brazilian) now solves almost nothing, and the viewer hardly notices it.
The Internet Video Association agrees with the colleagues' assessment. They noted that this year the market will grow both in revenue and subscribers, but the number of releases may actually decrease by 20% — and this is absolutely normal.
— Such reductions have virtually no effect on the economy of the market, the number of subscribers and, most importantly, on views. These indicators do not correlate directly with the amount of content," Alexey Byrdin, the head of the association, told Izvestia.
Globally, there is also a general downward trend in production volumes — this can be seen from Netflix, Disney, and other major players, the expert emphasized. Today, viewers don't have the opportunity to spend more and more time watching TV series and movies, so it's much more effective to invest in one strong project designed for a wide audience, advertise it well and garner maximum attention, than to produce many niche products with a separate advertising strategy for each audience.
— Companies have already conducted many experiments: they tried different formats, teams, genres, showrunners, analyzed the results, the effectiveness of investments and views. Now they are focusing on those solutions that give the best cost—benefit results, whether it's the number of episodes, subscribers, or just the quality of the product. Therefore, nothing dramatic happens," explained Alexey Byrdin.
After foreign companies left the Russian market, there was a shortage of content — it was necessary to solve this problem and create competitive domestic content in order to saturate the market, explained Izvestia columnist, film critic Sergey Sychev. Now this problem is practically solved.
— There are many ways to purchase foreign content. By purchasing foreign content, you can reduce your own production. Now, in the case of domestic content, you can focus not on producing as many titles as possible, but on creating and emphasizing landmark projects that become not just TV series, but important events," the expert explained.
Yulia Zagitova, founder of Breaking Trends and secretary of the Union of Journalists of Russia, attributes the decline in production volumes not only to the gradual return of foreign content, but also to an increase in the cost of producing content.
— Over the past two years, all stages of making films and TV series have increased in price, from renting venues to the work of film crews. Therefore, online cinemas focus on the most popular and guaranteed genres in demand - family fairy tales, dramas, detective stories," she believes.
According to her, the overall trend now reflects the transition to a more cautious content economy: less experimentation, more calculation, and a focus on proven formats.
What new products are being prepared by online cinemas
The press service of the online cinema Wink told Izvestia that in 2025 the number of original projects will remain at the level of 2024. They do not predict a decline there.
— The first series from the Wink Originals line, released in 2025, is the dramedy "Lilies of the Valley. Such a tender love." The project has become very popular with our audience, to date it has been watched by more than three million viewers and filming of the second season, "Lilies of the Valley. The second spring," the press service said.
Work on the project "Moscow does not believe in tears" is currently being completed. Everything is just beginning" from the directors Olga Dolmatovskaya and Zhora Kryzhovnikov. And recently, filming of Boris Akopov's series "The Cashier" started in Vladivostok. In addition to these and other new titles, subscribers are waiting for the continuation of the popular TV series "Curious Varvara", "I'm leaving beautifully" and "Children of Change", they added.
The content policy of the Premier online cinema changed at the end of 2024. The company has focused on producing more expensive, large-scale original projects, the platform's press service said.
"This corresponds to the trend of the entire market: the industry no longer chases after quantity, the quality of content comes first, its exact match to the target audience's request," the company emphasized.
Measuring the level and success of production in the market by the number of original projects coming out is an outdated technique. Now the market is looking at the success of specific projects: how many series gathered millions of viewers in a year, which ones were discussed, the press service added.
This year, the online cinema will release the comedy "Miracle" about a police lieutenant who goes undercover to join Alcoholics Anonymous to catch a criminal; the political thriller "Dear Willy" about the secret friendship between Brezhnev and the Chancellor of West Germany during the Cold War - based on historical events and eyewitness accounts; the medical drama "Full House" about transplant doctors; "The King of the Night" starring Elizaveta Boyarskaya about the fate of emigrant noblemen after the 1917 Revolution and other projects.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the online cinemas Start, IVI.
Already in 2024, online cinemas, according to the Kinopoisk Pro Index, significantly reduced the number of original projects compared to the previous year. If 201 TV series, films and documentaries competed for the audience's attention in 2023, then in 2024 the number of such projects decreased by 25% to 151. This year this trend continues, the press service of Kinopoisk noted.
— We definitely do not plan to increase the number of original projects ourselves, this has never been our goal. We focus on events and the development of our own franchises," they told Izvestia.
For online cinemas, it's not the content and exclusives that matter, but the product — first of all, an effective recommendation system. Thanks to them, the maximum number of subscribers of the platform who may be interested in this title will find out about the film or series, the press service emphasized.
A screenshot from the movie "Where is our money?"
In 2025, Kinopoisk has already released the series "Unscrupulous in St. Petersburg", a spin-off of the popular comedy franchise, the film "Where is our Money", as well as the second season of the series "Cyber Village", the third season of the series "Method", "Major Thunder: The Series", the films "There" and "Major in Dubai".
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