Moscow, Russia - Gazprom-media, the leading diversified media holding in Russia and Eastern Europe, announced the closure of a deal to create a new online video platform Ruform. Gazprom-Media has acquired 33.3% stake in Pladform and established a joint enterprise Ruform.
The association of the leading online distribution system Pladform and Russia's largest video service Rutube offers opportunities to create a leading video platform in Russia. Ruform will operate on the mass market under Rutube brand and will provide service for the rightholders and Internet platforms under Pladform brand.
The participation in Ruform will allow Gazprom-media to expand content distribution and to further strengthen Gazprom-media’s position on video advertising market. According to Gazprom-media Digital, Russian video advertising market amounted to 5.3 billion rubles in 2015. Rutube market share on video advertising market was 8%, and Pladform market share reached about 14% in 2015. Russian video advertising market is expected to grow by 15% in 2016 while Ruform combined market reaching approximately 26%. During 2015, Rutube and Pladform generated 4.4 billion and 6 billion views, respectively.
Gazprom-media Digital will operate Ruform’s video advertising sales.
Armen Gulinyan which currently serves as the Director General at Pladform will become General Director of Ruform. Head of Gazprom-media Technology Vadim Fedotov will become the Chairman of the Board at Ruform.
"We are pleased to introduce a new player with leading market positions in terms of audience reach and access to the wide library of licensed domestic content, including Gazprom-media’s original content. We have created a "single window", allowing holders to reach more than 40 million Russian users. New video platform also ensures the advertisers can communicate with their audiences while using the legal content," said head of Gazprom-media Technology Vadim Fedotov.
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