"Russian serial content competes confidently for the viewer's attention"
Filmmakers have not yet managed to create a universal recipe for success, even with the help of AI, but the analysis of already released projects and their campaigns can have practical benefits for the industry. This is stated by Evgeny Mironov, head of the working group on the development of the Russian rating of the series "Medialogia" within the holding company NMG. The team analyzed more than a thousand projects and found out: Russian viewers are more likely to choose domestic TV series. Franchises like "Daddy's Daughters" and provocative novelties occupy strong positions in the top 100. The expert spoke in an exclusive interview with Izvestia about the principle by which projects get into the rating and whether it is possible to predict in advance which one will "shoot".
"Franchises allow you to retain and grow your audience"
— What do the results of the first Russian series rating show? What was interesting for the audience in 2025?
— To compile the top 100 most popular TV series among Russian residents in 2025, we analyzed more than a thousand projects, both Russian and foreign. In this funnel, almost 40% were domestic series, while they scored about 60% of the total number of points on this list (the higher the score, the more often they searched, watched and discussed). In the final top 100, the share of Russian projects is even higher - already 60%. At the same time, Turkish TV series took 10%, other foreign shows took 20%, and adult animation took another 10%.
In other words, we can confidently say that Russian TV series are firmly entrenched in the choice of Russians and that Russian serial content confidently competes for the viewer's attention. The rating also shows that franchises like "Daddy's Daughters", "Uni" or "Trace" allow you to retain and grow your audience. That is, a wide audience, all other things being equal, brings such projects to the top. But if a title is bright and perhaps even provocative, such as "Old School" or "Fisher," it also naturally ends up at the top and falls into its own segment.
— How exactly do these projects get to the top? How was the rating formed from the point of view of methodology and how does it differ from the existing ones?
— There are already various tools on the market for analyzing media content, but most often they show only part of the picture: somewhere it's just watching, somewhere it's just audience interest or media discussion. It was important for us to combine all this in one system and evaluate the series comprehensively.: how interested they were in it, how it was actually watched, and what a response it caused.
A shot from the TV series "Daddy's daughters. New ones"
That's why we built the rating on three large blocks. The first is demand: how actively people searched for the series and were interested in it. The second is watching: how it was consumed on TV and in digital. The third is the discussion: how actively they talked about him, how the audience reacted to him, and whether there was a noticeable public response around him.
The final score is calculated based on 19 metrics. The greatest weight in the model is given to viewing, followed by demand and discussion. In our calculations, we used Medialogy data, search analytics, as well as TV and digital viewing indicators.
— Can any TV and online projects get into the top?
— Yes, any project, if it scores a high final score, either consistently shows results in all three components of our model, or stands out noticeably in one of them. For example, a position in the rating may be affected by large-scale viewing, high audience interest, or a strong public outcry around the release.
— Even if we are talking about projects from pirate sites? For example, "Stranger Things" is a hit, but the new season has not been officially released in Russia.
— Yes, we also take such projects into account. The rating measures the actual impact of the series on the audience in Russia — regardless of the official show. If a project is actively searched for, watched, and discussed, it means that it affects viewer behavior and should be reflected in the rating.
A shot from the TV series "Stranger Things"
— Did you take into account the success of only the last season of this series, which was just released in 2025, or could the data that relate to this multi-year project as a whole affect its place in the rating? For example, a fan might have mentioned the first season of the series somewhere on social media, but in 2025.
— The demand and discussion of the series cannot be attributed to a specific season, so in this case we are talking about the franchise as a whole. But the key condition for its presence in the rating is the release of at least one new series in 2025.
Evgeny Mironov, Head of the rating development working group, during the presentation of the National Series Rating
— Can an old TV series get into the top if it is first published on one of the streaming services or shown for the first time on one of the domestic TV channels in the event of a new wave of its popularity?
— There is no rating in the current version. As I said earlier, we only take into account those series that had new episodes or seasons in 2025. But in the future, we do not rule out expanding the sample of the model for such cases.
"It would be ideal to get a universal formula for creating a hit"
— How often will the rating be updated and for what period will the projects be selected?
— In the near future, we plan to switch to regular updates, initially on a monthly basis. We are also considering the possibility of expanding the product line based on it. For example, in January, we publish the top 20 series that were released this month, as well as titles that started in 2025, but retained a fairly high level of interest. The same approach applies to other months.
— Can a rating be considered an objective quality mark?
— I would not call it a universal indicator of quality in the artistic sense. Quality is evaluated in different ways — by critics, the professional community, and the audience. Rather, our rating reflects the real response of the mass audience at all stages of interaction with the content. Since viewing has the most weight, it shows the strength of the product to a certain extent, but the result is also influenced by the interest of the audience and the effectiveness of the promotion.
— Does this product have a global purpose? Can he, for example, help predict the prospects of new projects in the future, set trends for what to direct and with which actors to shoot?
— Of course, it would be ideal to get a universal formula for creating a hit, we are aware of attempts to solve this problem using AI, both in Russia and in the world. But so far, no one has succeeded. Our rating provides information on already released TV series. But analyzing the experience of a particular title and its campaign as a whole, of course, we can conclude about the prospect of, for example, a similar planned new product. Therefore, we expect that the rating will become not only a tool for displaying the impact on the audience and the success of the series, but also a source of applied conclusions for the market.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
