Polina Gontar believes that the trend towards local media

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Polina Gontar, an analyst at the Transformation Strategy practice at Reksoft Consulting, noted that the habit of increased consumption of digital content has remained after the pandemic: "The audience has become accustomed to recommendation services on streaming platforms and various formats that try to meet the daily habits of the consumer. In addition, digital distribution allows you to combine content consumption with other daily activities. In response, the market is actively responding to the growth in demand, increasing not only the volume, but also the quality of media. Ecosystem players make a major contribution - Yandex LLC, Sberbank PJSC, VK LLC, Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS), Rostelecom PJSC, etc.: the competition for subscriptions is not over yet, so original digital content has been one of the main differentiators in marketing for the past few years."

is not new for the entertainment china whatsapp resource market: "Domestic films and series have always been in demand on TV, and with the departure of international players, their Russian colleagues received an incentive for development and additional government funding."

She noted that not all foreign content has left: "If we talk about the film industry, for example: firstly, the terms of some licensing deals with majors and mini-majors (with companies occupying a leading position in the market - usually film studios and record labels - ComNews note ) have not expired, under which platforms continue to show foreign films. Secondly, independent foreign films have normal access to our screens. And there are even some indicators from the Western side: recently, the streaming platform Netflix returned the Russian language for new popular series. Whether this will be a one-time or permanent - remains to be seen."

Polina Gontar mentioned that with the departure of Hollywood films from the legal field, no one really advertises them, shifting the budget to promoting large Russian projects, which allows them to set new records for views and box office receipts.

A representative of the press service of the MTS Media holding told a ComNews correspondent that the audience of the digital services KION, MTS Music and Stroki is growing every year: "Since the founding of the KION online cinema in April 2021, by the end of 2023, the number of users reached 8.6 million. There are several drivers in the online cinema market. Firstly, the growth in the quantity and quality of content (over 80 projects have been released on KION over the three years of its existence). Secondly, technological development: a stable, secure service, children's accounts, a user-friendly interface, availability on any gadget, the introduction of Big Data and artificial intelligence, with the help of which individual content selections are created. This allows the platforms to apply a personalized approach that users appreciate. Finally, streaming is being transformed from services for watching movies into full-fledged media services - for example, MTS Music has become available for listening on some Smart TVs in KION.

"The monthly audience of the MTS Music music streaming service in Q4 2023 grew by 42% compared to Q4 2022. The priority for 2024 is to provide quality service and grow the audience. This year, we expect dynamics no less than last year, that is, we expect a twofold increase in the audience," said a representative of the press service of the MTS Media holding.

Online cinemas Premier, Ivi, Okko.tv, VK did not respond to questions from a ComNews correspondent.