Citizens reached out to libraries – Newspaper Kommersant No. 30 (7475) dated 17.02.

In 2022, Russians were 27% less interested in TV shows than a year earlier, according to Kinopoisk. Analysts attribute this to a general drop in demand for entertainment content, transfers of premieres and the departure of Netflix. Media holdings, however, claim that interest is recovering, and it is attracted primarily by Russian projects. In 2023, the situation will continue to be affected by the disappearance of foreign content from legal libraries, experts believe.

“Kommersant” got acquainted with the study of “Kinopoisk” based on the tool “Index Kinopoisk Pro”. According to him, the series in 2022 scored about 365 thousand points of interest, which is 27% less than in 2021. The number of points depends on how often viewers were interested in a particular project in search engines, on the Internet pages of TV channels, online cinemas, video services (including YouTube), in encyclopedias and other resources. For verification, information about the series from the Kinopoisk encyclopedia, Yandex data, including Search and Yandex.Browser statistics, as well as Google open data, are used. About 250 million visits are taken into account per month in the index, all actions are converted into single points.

Interest in TV shows declined after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and reached a minimum in the summer, the study says: June was the worst month for TV shows since January 2021 (no earlier data), they received the minimum number of points (15% less year-on-year ). Analysts attribute the drop in interest to the fact that last spring TV channels almost abandoned entertainment content in favor of information programs, and many online cinemas postponed premieres and reduced marketing activity. The departure of Netflix in March also affected the statistics: the attention of Russian viewers to its series fell by 40%.

The structure of viewers’ interest has also changed, it has shifted from premieres to familiar series. The two leaders of the year – “Knock on My Door” and “Magnificent Century” – did not release new seasons in 2022. Also, Russian TV series are receiving more and more attention: their share in the overall index increased from 28.9% to 32.9% over the year. The most popular was “Major” from “Channel One”.

Interest in series as a whole began to return in September 2022 and has now almost recovered: in January 2023, the figure is only 3% lower year-on-year, the study says. If at the beginning of 2022 the viewing of entertainment content decreased in favor of news and socio-political content, now the demand for series has recovered, confirms the National Media Group (NMG). Gazprom-Media Holding agrees that a year ago “there was a period of temporary switching to the news”, but interest in entertainment content has returned.

The departure of some services from Russia and the policy of TV channels could affect the indicators, Anton Volodkin, director of the video service Wink (Rostelecom), notes. However, he believes that we are talking about a drop not in demand, but in supply, primarily from TV. Wink, says the top manager, is seeing an influx of new users.

Online cinemas continue to attract audiences, Ksenia Boletskaya, director of interaction with the film industry at Yandex, confirms: in December 2022, 8.4 million Plus subscribers watched films and series in Kinopoisk, which is 85% more than a year earlier. In Amediateka, the number of subscribers in 2022 grew by 47%, the number of views per user – by 23%, says Tatyana Kalita, CEO of the service.

However, the trend towards a decrease in interest in TV series may resume in 2023 due to the reduction of libraries of legal video services, Telecom Daily CEO Denis Kuskov warns: “The market may feel the maximum effect from the departure of major producers from the Russian market by the summer of 2023 due to the fact contracts for archival content will not be renewed.” The rights of Russian services to many foreign films will not be renewed. The licenses for the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movie franchises are ending in Amediatek from February 1, Vedomosti, citing sources, reported that all Disney content could leave online cinemas since March.

Valeria Lebedeva