Russia’s TV production investment doubles since 2006

Investment in TV productions in Russia has more than doubled in the last two years, fueled by the growth in locally produced long running series and TV movies.

The total amount of investment in the sector reached RUB12.3 billion (US$423 million) in 2008, compared to RUB5 billion in 2006. This was particularly buoyed by TV series with over 26 episodes, which accounted for RUB4.7 billion (compared to RUB2 in 2006).

These figures were released as part of The European Audiovisual Observatory’s The Film Industry in the Federation of Russia report.

Amedia, which produces local versions of Telemundo Internacional’s telenovela Thirty and Imagina’s Spanish comedy Paco’s Men, is the leading production company by number of hours of TV produced with 1,246 hours over the last three years giving it a 14% share. This compares with Sony Pictures Television-owned Lean-M’s 13% share and an 11% share for both Creative TV Association and Star-Media. TeleAlliance Media Group, which is owned by Zodiak Entertainment, has a 9% market share with 777 hours produced. 

The average cost of TV production in the country has yo-yoed in the last few years. The average cost of producing a TV series was US$100,000 per hour in 2006, doubling to US$200,000 last year. However, for the first six months of 2009, this figure has returned to 2006 levels.

The number of TV coproductions is also a very small share of overall productions. Rossiya TV coproduced miniseries Voina I Mir (War and Peace) with Italy’s Rai, Germany’s Eos Film and France’s Pampa Production, as well as a Chinese/Russian version of A Zori Zdes Tikhie with state broadcaster CCTV, although the number of international coproductions is still very small.