MOSCOW, July 7, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ROSKINO and Digital Media Rights, a leading digital video aggregator and publisher, announced the exclusive launch of Russian TV series in the U.S. on the free, ad-supported Hulu and Hulu Plus subscription service. Russia's leading independent media company CTC Media Inc. (Nasdaq: CTCM ) is one of the partners in the agreement.
CTC Media and ROSKINO will provide a range of their in-house television shows including sports drama Junior League (hulu.com/junior-league), dramedy Ranetki (hulu.com/ranetki), mystery thriller The Day After (hulu.com/the-day-after) and crime drama Lavrova's Method on Hulu and Hulu Plus.
Vyacheslav Murugov, Chief Content Officer of CTC Media and Head of CTC Channel, said, "Maximizing the presence of CTC Media content in all media and on all platforms is a critical component of our strategy. We are excited to collaborate with ROSKINO to make our products available on the Hulu service. We deliver our content to U.S. audience over CTC International, and we know that it is popular and in demand. I am confident that Russian content will be equally exciting for a wider audience in the US."
In 2012, ROSKINO and Gravitas Ventures announced the exclusive launch of 11 Russian films on Hulu. Within two weeks, one of those films, "Spy," directed by A. Andrianov, was among the 20 most popular film titles on Hulu.
Thanks to the work carried out by ROSKINO, Digital Media Rights and CTC Media, more television films and series will be added to the package of Russian content available on Hulu.
Katya Mtsituridze, ROSKINO CEO, said, "It is the first time in history that so many Russian titles are available to millions of viewers in the U.S. It represents an outstanding opportunity for Russian filmmakers and producers of TV-content to enter the U.S. market. I am confident that diverse, high-quality content offered by CTC Media will be very popular on Hulu that already features some of our titles. It is most importantly a matter of our national prestige and worldwide promotion of our products, and given the right attention, this project may develop a very significant capitalization."
Russian content will be available on hulu.com/Russian. All shows will be presented in original language with English subtitles.
Michael Hong, Digital Media Rights CEO, said, "I had the pleasure to screen many new films during the Second DOORS International Film Market in St. Petersburg. These films as well as the dramas we have acquired from CTC/Roskino have a good opportunity to gain meaningful traction in the U.S. market. I think Americans will be surprised as I was to discover the level of world-class production values that when combined with Russia's legendary tradition of story-telling makes for something special."
ROSKINO and Digital Media Rights are planning to expand the distribution of Russian content across the U.S. by offering a wider range of feature titles and television series, and by adding new platforms to this project.
CTC Media is Russia's leading independent media company managing three television channels in Russia (CTC, Domashny and Preetz) as well as Channel 31 in Kazakhstan and a TV company in Moldova with combined potential audience over 150 million viewers. The international version of CTC Channel is available in North America, Europe, Central Asia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Middle East and Kyrgyzstan. The international version of Peretz version is available in Belarus in Kyrgyzstan as well. CTC Media owns several digital entertainment media assets including videomore.ru, domashniy.ru, ctc.ru and peretz.ru. CTC Media is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol CTCM.
| Irina Faritova |
| Head of Investor Relations |
| +7 495 981 0740 |
| ir@ctcmedia.ru |
| Igor Ivanov |
| Press Secretary |
| +7 (495) 785 63 47, ext. 4352, |
| + 7 (985) 763 00 85 |
| iivanov@ctcmedia.ru |
ROSKINO is Russia's only state-owned organization promoting Russian films worldwide. ROSKINO has been helping Russian filmmakers to integrate in the global film industry since 1924. ROSKINO celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2014.
ROSKINO promotes Russian films in the international film festivals in Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto, film markets such as AFM in Los Angeles, EFM in Berlin and Marché du Film and MIPCOM in Cannes, and awards including the Academy Awards, the Golden Globe Award and the European Film Awards; supports the distribution of Russian films and engages investors and partners interested in joint production projects with Russia.
One of the most notable ROSKINO projects is the DOORS International Film Market presenting new Russian titles in the leading film markets worldwide.
In 2012, ROSKINO opened its Russian Film Commission USA subsidiary in Los Angeles. In 2014, ROSKINO opened a representative office, ROSKINO-UK, in London.
| Elena Barkova |
| Press Secretary |
| + 7 985 428-48-48 |
| elena.barkova@gmail.com |
Digital Media Rights (DMR) is one of the largest aggregators and multi-platform distributors of feature films, television shows, music programs, and sporting events. Digital Media Rights oversees a catalog of several thousand titles from leading studios and producers around the world. Digital Media Rights is also a major digital video publisher and has created popular branded content channels such as Midnight Pulp (American horror, cult, and thriller films and tv), Indie Crush (art-house, foreign films and tv), Asian Crush (Asian films and tv), Latin Crush (Spanish language films and tv, Audio Crush (music concerts and documentaries) which have become popular destinations across multiple platforms and connected devices.
| JP Garcia |
| Media inquiries |
| (917) 912-2505 |
| jpgarcia@digitalmediarights.com |
