by
Martin Banks
These include the knowledge acquired by regional producers in offering competitive platforms and building successful international partnerships at the international level comparable to the efforts of the big media holdings.
The traditional television industry had undergone significant changes in recent times and faces multiple challenges, including the competition from digital, Pay-TV and online streaming platforms.
However, innovation in this sphere is not just the preserve of traditionally dominant US and Europe based producers but also companies operating in other countries.
Regional producers are not only gaining an ever growing share of the market but also seek international expansion by forging alliances with other regional media holdings. The so-called “BRICS” countries currently dominate competition in this area with national operators in Russia, India, China, Brazil and South Africa actively furthering cooperation with international partners from fellow emerging countries.
Many were represented at "Challenges and opportunities: Media in BRICS countries", an annual media conference hosted by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
CEOs and directors from Prasar Bharati, the Indian national broadcaster, Intel Brazil and Digital Television Russia (DTR) gathered to discuss the fast evolving scenario of media production, saying BRICS media networks want to share and jointly produce content.
Support for this was voiced by DTR CEO, Kyrill Lysko, who said that some 15 % of global content is already produced in languages other than English from countries such as South Africa, India and Turkey and hence “there is need to develop the marketing of these contents in the international”.
His company’s international strategy represents a good example of best practice for other,like-minded regional producers pushing for international expansion.
Founded in 2013, DTR is now the leading basic and premium Pay TV broadcaster on the Russian market, enjoying 34.6 % of the share, and it is owned by the Russian State Television (VGTRK) and Rostelecom, a major telecom company.
It business vision was carefully planned. When the group was formed, it management soon realised the Russian market had stalled: despite high-quality infrastructure and production, it completely lacked content adaptation skills and a foreign network to sell content to an international audience. After thoroughly researching the market, the management identified the most attractive market niches, including animation and video games, factual entertainment and women-targeted content.
These became the core products of the company whose philosophy is based on five “pillars”: develop a strategic vision; hire competent professionals; deliver a cross-media promotional campaign; distribute flexibly and keep the market under constant scrutiny.
The goal was to adapt local content for different audiences at a regional and global level and to develop a network of content with other regional producers. However, the company realised that to implement this it was necessary to forge a solid market position.
DTR has worked in the past five years to create an extensive support “ecosystem” by identifying several partner organisations covering different sectors. Today, the group includes more than 1,000 SMEs, larger service providers, research centres and leading animation studios. Among its most successful partnerships are with STV, the Russian leader in the retransmission of thematic satellite channels; “Zero Plus Media”, the main player in the animation content licensing market; and ”Signal Media”, the Russian Pay TV channel distributor.
Once the network had grown, the group turned its attention to its international positioning which revolves around two “themes”: promoting the brand through participation in global events and establishing international partnerships.
Concerning the first, DTR presented some of its products at the prestigious MIPCOM 2016 at Cannes, the world’s biggest event for new TV formats and programmes.
The group won plaudits for its cartoons “Be-be-bears” and “Fantasy Patrol”, ranked respectively 15th and 27th in the top-30 of the most watched children’s TV programmes.
DTR has also developed a series of fruitful partnerships with other BRICS producers. For example,in August 2015, it inked a deal with Prasar Bharati which, according to its chairman A. Surya Prakash reflected the “strong bond” between the two countries.”
In May 2016 DTR concluded an agreement for the promotion of Chinese content in Russia (and Russian content in China) with LeEco, the Chinese multinational corporation. The goal in 2017 is to launch a coproduction with Brazilian broadcasters, which will pave the way for the group to enter the Latin American market.
The company accepts it still work to do, for example, on content adaptation and cutting the costs in dubbing and translation.
But the DTR “success story” shows it is not a utopia for a regional producer to build its company from scratch and create a successful international network.
By: N. Peter Kramer
