The growth of revenue of film production studios slowed down
According to the results of 2024, the growth rate of the revenue of a number of show manufacturers, series and films for Russian television channels slowed down. For the largest market participant – the Red Square – the indicator grew by 35% against 43% a year earlier. Market participants associate this with an increase in the number of joint projects of television channels and online cinemas, which allows you to divide the costs of paying for the production of content.
“Kommersant” analyzed the financial indicators of the largest suppliers of the show and series for Russian television channels published on the state information resource of accounting (financial) reporting in April. Channel One partner Studio Red Square in 2024 increased revenue by 35%, to 6.4 billion rubles, with a net profit of 192.9 million rubles. At the same time, the growth rate of the studio revenue slowed down – a year earlier the indicator was at the level of 43.3%. The accounting debt of the studio increased 1.5 times per period and amounted to 6.6 billion rubles, should be from explanations to the report on the financial results of the company. It is clarified that the indicator by 85% is the debt of “buyers and customers”, which, in turn, consists of 89% of the debt from Channel One (5.6 billion rubles).
Weit Media (“Russia 1”, NTV, STS, TV-3) increased revenue last year by only 2.5%, to 3.1 billion rubles, while the net profit of the AO for a period decreased by 13% and amounted to 163.4 million rubles. A year earlier, the company’s revenue increased by 31.8% year by the year, to 3.1 billion rubles.
Former TNT Partner Solaris Promo Production (SPP) increased revenue by 59%, to 3.9 billion rubles, with a decrease in net profit by 54%, to 886.3 million rubles. The flagship project of the SPP remains the show « Dom-2 ». But the company is engaged in other directions: the Music TNT channel (in 2022 its owner was the bookmaker « Fonbet »), restaurants and Internet projects. In Solyaris Promo Production, they did not respond to a request. Other TNT partners, such as Comedy Club Production, Good Story Media, last published their reports in 2021, followed by Spark-Interfax data.
The exception is “Amedia Production” (partners – “Channel One”, “Russia 1”, NTV, STS, “Home”, etc.). Its performance for the first time since 2022 showed growth. So, the revenue of the studio last year increased by 64%, to 981 million rubles, and net profit – more than half, up to 193 million rubles. At the beginning of last year, the studio was left by its general director Vadim Sokolovsky, who led the company since November 2023. Since March 14, Inga Korenevskaya occupies this position, follows from the data of Spark-Interfax. The Red Square refused to comment. Representatives of Weit Media and Amedia Production did not respond to Kommersant’s request.
A year earlier, content manufacturers significantly increased revenue – by 30–40% or more (see Kommersant on April 8, 2024). Basically, income growth was provided by work with online cinemas, which increased investments in the production of their own content, the market participants noted.
The interlocutor “Kommersant” in one of the studios of film production suggests that the reduction in the growth rate of companies revenue is associated with a decrease in the total number of orders from online cinemas. They have become anchor customers for the market participants in recent times (see Kommersant on April 8, 2024). As a result, streams began to reduce the number of original projects – for example, in the first quarter, their number decreased by 40%by a year, to 24 new series (see Kommersant from April 4). New original projects are increasingly produced by streaming and television channels, as this allows companies to share expenses, says Kommersant’s interlocutor.
