Chiefs of Russian television companies – Russian First channel, All Russian tele-radio-broadcasting company, GasProm Media, STS media and National Media Group – have reached preliminary arrangement at the meeting. Russian TV companies want to protect brands and keep exclusive in popular TV shows without buyout of rights in content.
If one channel has broadcasted a show or serial and other channel wants to broadcast the same show or serial again or wants to broadcast the next season of the same show or serial, such other channel must asked the channel, who originally broadcasted the given show or serial, for approval to do it. In other words such arrangement eliminated competition between production companies and channels. Currently the channels don’t control production companies, and the channels don’t like it.
Production companies did not like this arrangement and they hope it will not be executed. Production companies produce content and provide the channels with rights to broadcast it. Sometimes channels buyout the rights in content, but sometimes they take only license. In a case of license the production company can provide the other channel, the competitor, with license to broadcast the show or serial again or can give a license to channel again, if such channel already has broadcasted the show or serial.
At the meeting the chiefs of channel have underlined increase of hard competition from the side of thematic channels, slowdown of advertising market and time of television viewing. Moreover, the channels experience the pressure from the side of internet companies. As a result Russian federal companies compete with each other for the content. Sometimes public conflicts happen.