Last week the State Duma, Russia’s lower house or parliament, approved in the first reading a bill to limit foreign owners to take more than a 20% stake in online streaming services operating in Russia. The news was reported by the news agency Interfax. The new legislation applies to audio and video services with over …
New law to restrict foreign ownership of online streaming services Read More
The BBC is investigating claims that Russian hackers leaked the series finale of hit television show Sherlock before its Sunday night broadcast. A Russian-language version of the episode, believed to be from the Russia’s Channel One, appeared online Saturday. “BBC Worldwide takes breaches of our stringent content security protocols very seriously and we have initiated …
BBC to investigate alleged Russian hack of hit show Sherlock Read More
Earlier this month Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman took part in a $24 million funding round for French OTT TV service Molotov. The UK media group Sky and the French infrastructure operator TDF also participated in the deal in undisclosed proportions. Molotov will use the resources to expand its footprint internationally, said Molotov’s co-founder Jean-David Blanc, as reported …
Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman invests in French OTT TV service Read More
The Russian online economy reached 1.94 trillion rubles (roughly $31 billion at the average exchange rate) in 2015, according to “The Runet Economy,” a study released last month by the Russian Association for Electronic Communications (RAEC). This amount is equal to 2.4% of Russia’s gross domestic product, slightly more (0.2 percentage points) than in 2014. Due …
Report: Russia’s online economy accounts for nearly 2.5% of GDP Read More
Russian industry lobbies and lawmakers are preparing changes to the legislation on online video content. According to an advanced draft bill analyzed by Kommersant, the owners of independent online streaming companies with over 100,000 daily views will be required to reduce the share of foreign capital to 20% or less by March 1, 2017. A …
Russia considers restrictions to foreign capital ownership of online video companies Read More
Last week Mail.ru Group, a major, LSE-listed Russian Internet group, released Artisto, an app which allows users to edit short videos, processing them in the style of famous artworks or any other source image. Using a neural network-inspired technology, the app is now available globally on the App Store and Google Play. Artisto now processes 10-second videos and offers 14 filters to …
On the steps of Prisma: Mail.Ru Group applies neural network technologies to videos Read More
The US government is providing support to Netflix — which became available in Russia in January 2016 — as part of an effort to “get into every television” in the world, Russia’s culture minister Vladimir Medinsky stated in an interview with Rambler News Service (RNS). Netflix has developed its business with the support of the US government, …
On behalf of taxi drivers, the Federation of Russian Car Owners (FAR) has filed a complaint with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev over the low prices dictated by taxi service aggregators, the RBC news agency reported Tuesday. The complaint by FAR said that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) had refused to initiate legal action against Uber, …
Russian taxi drivers complain over Uber’s pressure on prices Read More
Virool, a San Francisco-based video ad startup founded in 2011 by a Russian team, has closed a Series A round of $12 million. The funding, which comes from Menlo Ventures, Yahoo Japan, 500 Startups and Flint Capital, will accelerate the company’s North America, Latin America and Europe plans. The company also aims to develop across the APAC region “with the strategic sense of …
Video ad startup Virool raises $12 million to “make advertising human” Read More
VKontakte (VK), the leading social network in Russia and a property of LSE-listed Mail.ru Group, has won a legal battle against Universal Music and Warner Music. In two verdicts handed down on March 2 and 3, the Saint Petersburg & Leningradsky Region Appeal Court overturned an earlier ruling that VK must implement effective technology to stop infringements …
Confirming a trend which started years ago and continued all along 2015, several venture funds with Russian backers or managers invested abroad last month, with half a dozen significant deals made public. Thus AltaIR Capital, LETA Capital and Maxfield Capital took part in a $1.2 million seed funding round for Tel Aviv-based startup Viisights. The round was led by Israeli early-stage fund The Time. …
From London, to Prague, to Tel Aviv, Russian money still fuels international startups Read More
Rutracker.org, the world’s largest Russian-language torrents website, has deprived copyright holders of the ability to delete illegal downloads, the IT-website Roem.Ru reported Tuesday. “It has been announced officially (…) that all CNA-accounts [which granted copyright holders the authority to delete links to illegal downloads] have been switched to regular user mode,” Oleg Yashin from the intellectual …
Russian torrents website strips copyright holders of their rights Read More
