Russian streaming services lose up to half of Hollywood-produced content
The number of Hollywood-produced films and TV series offered by Russia’s streaming services has been slashed by 40–50 percent, an RBC-commissioned study shows.
The study was conducted by TelecomDaily, focusing on foreign titles in general and also on entertainment produced by major studios like Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Paramount, and Universal Studios.
A comparative review of streaming content available as of March 16, 2022 and exactly one year later revealed that, by March 16, 2023, around 40–50 percent of imported entertainment has disappeared from streaming services like Kinopoisk, Ivi, Kion, Premier, and Wink.
The Yandex-owned Kinopoisk was affected most. Its competitor Okko lost a third of its foreign catalogue.
The reason for the change is the mass withdrawal of content licenses by studios that have condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian media market is trying to cope by acquiring streaming content from South Korea, Turkey, India, and China.
