Seen or not seen

Gazprom-Media did something with RuTube in early March

On March 6, the Kommersant newspaper published an article “Gazprom Video”, which greatly excited everyone who is even slightly interested in the Russian media market and Internet business. It said that the media holding valued the video portal RuTube.ru at “about” $15 million and was already conducting legal formalities for the purchase of a controlling stake in RuTube CJSC.

RuTube is an analogue of the American video portal YouTube, where users can upload their own videos and watch others. From the very beginning, there was little doubt that the owners would eventually sell the project - the entire Russian e-business was faced with a deal to sell YouTube to Google search engine for $1.65 billion.

Lots of talk

Briefly

The Russian video portal RuTube is visited by 400 thousand users daily, and 5.5 million per month. It is one of the hundred most visited sites on the Runet.

Large business publications have been trying to marry Gazprom-Media and RuTube.ru since July 2007. Kommersant noted that the owners are ready to part with the video service for 5-10 million dollars, and Gazprom Media in 2008 will allocate about a hundred million dollars for acquisitions in RuNet. An unprecedented amount, I must say.

Gazprom Media already admitted then that they were interested in the resource. the publication that this is not the only candidate buyer told RuTube producer Askar Tuganbaev . He also clarified that proposals also came from the venture fund Mangrove Capital Partners and individuals.

In the twenties of January 2008, the Vedomosti newspaper published material from which it followed that the owners of a non-profit video hosting service, Oleg Volobuev and Mikhail Paulkin, agreed to sell the resource to the Gazprom-Media holding. The fact of negotiations was confirmed by both Askar Tuganbaev and a representative of Gazprom Media.

It also clarified that they had not fully decided on the price and terms of the deal. In particular, it was about providing a loan secured by shares. Experts in the article estimated the cost of RuTube differently - from one to ten million dollars.

In February, the topic of online video and Gazprom Media showed itself in a new way. Kommersant wrote that the holding intends to invest about eight million dollars in the launch of Russia's first Internet television channel, which will broadcast, in particular, through a video player posted on the website. Programs for the channel were to be supplied by the production divisions of NTV and TNT. RuTube, the most noticeable element of which is the online video player, was not mentioned even once in the article.

Spring Fever

But in March, RuTube received such a mention from Kommersant that it didn’t seem like much: the deal was being finalized, the owners still had incentive shares. The parties, who previously confirmed everything, now refuse to comment.

Askar Tuganbaev left the company on March 3, becoming a former producer. He told Kommersant that recently Gazprom Media employees often appeared at the RuTube office, and the reason for his dismissal from the company was pressure from the holding.

So far, increased content promotion is not noticeable. Although there are about 1,400 NTV clips posted on RuTube, different users post 3-5 videos per day mentioning the channel. There are only 138 TNT videos, sometimes there are not a single video a day. STS videos are also posted - there are 306 of them on the video portal.

The latter allegedly demanded to promote the content of the TNT television channel he owned. Tuganbaev expressed concern to the publication that RuTube could turn into a branch of TNT and suggested that rival STS Media stopped posting its videos on YouTube precisely because of this.

In LiveJournal, the ex-producer expressed a slightly different version of what was happening. According to him, all TNT videos are deleted by moderators (he did not explain the reasons), he himself has never participated in any negotiations and has not heard anything about them. He also stated that he quit because his one-year contract had expired.

There is a lot that remains unclear in this story. For example, it is unclear why the producer's annual contract was not renewed. Have the owners of NTV and TNT really been negotiating since July, reached an agreement in principle with the owners at the beginning of the year, and recently began frequenting the video portal’s office? Could the new Internet TV channel "Gazprom-Media", which does not even have a name yet, be connected with RuTube?

But the main question, of course, is different. Is 15 million really any noticeable amount for a holding that is worth seven and a half billion dollars?

Alexander Amzin

Seen or not seen

Lots of talk

Spring Fever

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