Ukrainian producers of TV shows are losing customers from Russia

Photo: Konstantin Melnitskiy

Over the past several years the number of orders for films and TV series that Ukrainian production studios received from Russia has sharply decreased, several players on this market informed Capital.

They mainly associate this trend with the worsening of relations between Ukraine and Russia. “At the moment, the situation is tough as the Russian market is inherently closed to Ukrainian producers. And even when there are orders, Ukrainian producers are afraid to accept them because they will be pecked,” the founder and director of the GOST-media production studio Artem Marchevskiy shared with Capital.

He says at present the volume of film production in Ukraine, including TV series and shows, is around US $1bn per year. Up until recently 50-60% of Ukrainian production of TV series was oriented towards the Russian audience. In the structure of sales, proceeds from Russia, as a rule, accounted for 80%, says Director of the Fresh Production Group Oleh Shcherbyna. He said sales in Ukraine brought in approximately 15 %, while the remaining 5 % were earned by countries of the CIS.

War and money

The most expensive films were produced for top-rated TV channels – Channel 1 and RTR, said Shcherbyna. A film’s budget depends first and foremost on the channel’s purchasing power. Secondly, it depends on the particular nature of the subject and additional agreements with the channel, says Shcherbyna. The cost of police or military films differ the most depending on the client that orders it. “The NTV channel can afford a more expensive product than, for example, RenTV or Channel 5,” he claims.

In terms of the plot, market players say the most expensive category is war movies. The cost of shooting one episode could be as high US $1 mn, while a drama may cost only US $300,000. “Military films are always difficult to produce as there are the special settings, consumers and other considerable expenses. Nevertheless, such films bring in more profits,” says Marchevskiy.

Despite the commercial attraction, studios are curtailing the production of such films for ethical reasons, says Director of the Analytical Division of the Media Resources company Artem Vakalyuk. “While earlier there were projects on subjects of war, for example, in the series on the Great Patriotic War, today nobody is shooting such films,” he pointed out, adding that now more melodramas, comedies and neutral films are being produced. At the same time, Vakalyuk does not rule out that film producers will fade away into the shadows. “They can sell content without advertising it,” he says.

New requirements

A representative of a Ukrainian production studio said that Russia is putting specific requirements to those orders that remain. For example, there is a secret ban of Ukrainian actors and locations in the frame. This is discomforting mainly for small-time studios that do not have financial resources in neighboring countries (i.e. pavilions and crews). He says large studios can transfer film shootings to neighboring countries. “Star Media can shoot a film in Russia, while Film.ua will most likely shoot a film in Russia or Belarus,” he presupposes. Representative of Film.ua Anastasia Mironova said the company refuses to comment on relations with its Russian partners.

Chairman of the Board of Directors and founder of the Star Media group of companies Vlad Ryashin assured Capital that the Russian market is open to Ukrainian production studios as earlier. “By the way, the English market is also not closed. Everything depends on the will and professionalism of Ukrainian film producers,” he noted, adding that now Star Media is working on the English-language project Mata Hari, which will then be dubbed into Russian, Ukrainian and other languages.

Cinema on the way to Europe

General Director of the NTV+ company in Ukraine Ihor Davydenko assures: collaboration between Russian TV channels and Ukrainian production studios is gradually being minimized. However, the main reason for this is that Ukraine signed the Association Agreement with the European Union, his colleague Inga Kolesnychenko added. “Many countries that entered the EU went through the process of transition from orientation towards Russia to European content,” she argues. Kolesnychenko says TV stations in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are expressing their interest in the Ukrainian content. In Shcherbyna’s opinion, in the foreseeable future Ukraine may establish cooperation with such countries as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and in the mid-term with Bulgaria and Poland.

Program Director of 1+1 Media Andriy Koval says Ukrainian film producers will indeed have to seek new markets. “When we were part of Russia, a seller of content felt more protected as there was no motive to promote content to other countries. Now, there is sufficient motivation,” says Koval.

Content “for yourself”

Ukrainian TV channels can also increase purchases of local content by refusing to accept Russian programs. Players on the media market estimate that every year US $150-500 mn are transferred from Ukraine to the Russian market for the purchase of the rights to broadcast serial productions. Shcherbyna says these expenses are comparable to the cost of production of Ukrainian TV series.
As a reminder, in May 1+1 media announced that it will take off the air 15 such films and programs. “Within a few months television channels will understand that they will be forced to close live broadcasting, increase their viewing audience and begin placing orders,” Marchevskiy is convinced. He said, if there are sufficient orders studios will be able to optimize productions, buy their own equipment and at the same time reduce the costs of their product. “Accordingly, when the costs decrease and the quality of the product corresponds to the needs of contemporary viewers, this will attract the interest of foreign customers,” Marchevskiy assures.