Omlet.ru, a leading Russian online catalog for video, music and game content, will add content from Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, reports RBC Daily. Omlet.ru’s range of content is expected to increase by several hundred titles, including some films through exclusive distribution agreements.
The new content providers will transfer digital distribution rights to Omlet.ru for many box office blockbusters, including The Green Mile, Fast and the Furious, Inglorious Bastards, Black Lightning and The Blue Lagoon and full versions of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings as well as for popular television serials like Sex and the City, and Pride and Prejudice. Contracts with Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers will be for 2 years and a one-year contract has been signed for cooperation with Universal Pictures.
The site hopes the addition of such popular content to its catalog will increase traffic and revenues. Omlet.ru provides online movie rental from 35 to 100 rubles per view and download prices start at 75 rubles.
In 2009 and 2010 Omlet.ru added content from Paramount Pictures and Disney to its catalog of offerings, and in February 2011 made a content distribution agreement with Central Partnership. Through this stepped up partnership strategy, movies from major studios now constitute 40% of the online multimedia provider’s total movie catalog.
Omlet.ru is owned by MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator. Among competitors is Now.ru, a site launched earlier this month by Gazprom Media and its subsidiary TNT. Now.ru also expects to make distribution agreements with leading content providers such as Sony Pictures, Disney, Warner Brothers, Lions Gate, Nickelodeon, MTV Networks, BBC and Playboy Enterprises.
