Yandex is launching the production of original series, sources in several media companies told Vedomosti. According to them, Yandex employees, in search of projects, have been actively communicating with producers since the end of last year; the Internet company intends to order the production of eight to 10 series this year and will probably show its first projects at the beginning of 2020. The decision to launch of its own production on an ongoing basis, Yandex will accept based on the results of the display of the first projects, two Vedomosti interlocutors know.

“Currently, Yandex.Studio is negotiating with various companies about the production of films, TV series and shows in different genres, but we are not ready to disclose the details yet,” confirms Olga Filipuk, director of development of media services at Yandex.

“ Yandex ” orders TV series to develop its online cinema and, above all, to increase the number of paid subscribers, Vedomosti’s interlocutors know. The Internet company launched an online cinema based on Kinopoisk a year ago; users can watch films and TV series here in exchange for advertising or by subscription. The company does not disclose the number of subscribers to this service and the costs of purchasing content.

Most online cinemas offer content that is purchased from TV channels and film companies. But it is the original content that only this site has that best attracts the attention of users, employees of many media companies explained to Vedomosti. Here Yandex follows the experience of large American online services - Netflix and Amazon. Both started producing content in 2011 and already in 2013–2015. They released series that became cult favorites: “House of Cards”, “Orange is the New Black”, “Bosch”, “The Man in the High Castle”. “Orange Is the New Black,” released in 2013, became Netflix’s biggest hit at the time and attracted millions of subscribers, the service reported. The first season of The Man in the High Castle alone added 1.2 million new subscribers to Amazon in 2015.

Now the largest American online services spend more on the production of their series than on the purchase of others. Netflix planned to spend 85% of its $8 billion in total content spend on original series and films in 2018.

In Russia, the only example so far of the production of TV series by an Internet company independent of television holdings is the comedy project “Five with a Plus,” which is produced by the social network “Odnoklassniki.”

Yandex has little experience in producing content. His studio is a co-producer of three films: “Draft” and “Without Me” were released in cinemas in 2018, their production budgets were 280 million and 75 million rubles. respectively. The horror film The Thing opens in theaters in March.

In addition, . last year Yandex released two programs similar to television: a music show and a New Year's show The company does not disclose their indicators; Vedomosti sources said that the production budget of such programs amounted to tens of millions of rubles. Thus, Yandex’s costs for original content do not exceed several hundred million rubles. By October 2018, 93.5 billion rubles had accumulated in Yandex accounts. available funds, follows from his report. Even if the company spends 5% of this amount on content production, it will be comparable to the annual costs of dozens of series on a large TV channel in Russia, say top managers of two television holdings. But to produce 8–10 high-quality series of the level of the largest TV channels, Yandex will have enough 1.5 billion rubles. per year, they reason.

Vedomosti found six producers with whom Yandex was or continues to negotiate. Final agreements have been reached on at least two projects. This is a project of the Sreda television company by Alexander Tsekalo called “Ministry” about officials and corruption, its director is Roman Volobuev (he refused to comment), two Vedomosti interlocutors said. A representative of Sreda confirmed this. The detective series “Whirlpool” will be produced for Yandex by Ruben Dishdishyan’s Mars Media company, directed by Andrey Stempkovsky, two other Vedomosti interlocutors know. An acquaintance of Dishdishyan confirmed that Yandex ordered a season of “Whirlpool” from Mars Media. Dishdishyan declined to comment, citing agreements with his partner.

Another producer said that he had previously agreed with Yandex to film a pilot episode of the project. Two producers reported that their projects are being discussed within Yandex. Almost all of Vedomosti’s interlocutors asked not to disclose their names, since Yandex employees insist on non-disclosure of even the very fact of negotiations.

Internet services can produce series that cannot be shown on Russian TV, explained producer Alexander Rodnyansky: on acute social and political topics, with tougher scenes and vocabulary, with more explicit sex - and thereby attract an audience. However, Yandex is not ready to take risks with sensitive social topics and harsh political statements, two producers say, citing employees of the Internet company. Another producer points out that the series, which he previously agreed on with Yandex, contains many tough scenes that could hardly be shown even late in the evening on the federal channel. He calls the ability to work with new formats one of the advantages of working with Yandex.

Yandex . assures that it is ready to spend budgets on TV series comparable to large channels, producers confirm The series, according to TV channel managers, can cost up to 15 million rubles.

Producers are rejoicing: another customer for series has appeared - due to stagnation in the television advertising market, channels are cutting budgets and delaying payments. Of all the independent online cinemas in Russia, Yandex has the best chance of succeeding in producing and showing original content, they argue, due to the size of the company, the technical advancement of its services, and knowledge of user preferences.

The main problem of Yandex is the lack of expertise in content in general and the lack of professional producers among the company’s employees, which will undoubtedly affect the selection and quality of projects, Vedomosti’s interlocutors argue (Yandex does not comment on this). This greatly increases the risks of content production.

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Yandex began filming TV series