The award ceremony of the 2nd Festival of content of streaming platforms "ORIGINAL+" took place on March 15 in Moscow within the framework of CSTB.PRO.MEDIA 2023.


	 The Actresses series by the general producer of "NMG Studio" Fyodor&nbsp;Bondarchuk received the main prize, winning in the nomination "Original series". The series also received an award for the "Original Director's Vision". The series focuses on the acting profession and the lives of those associated with the acting and film environment. The project premiere, based on a scenario by Paulina Andreeva of Valery Todorovsky Studios, NMG Studios and Plus Studios, will take place on March 30 on the Kinopoisk and Wink online movie theaters. Production of a 10-episode dramedy is handled by Sergei Bondarchuk and Alexei Kiselev's Studio Videoprokat (Psycho, Happy End). The showrunners of the project are Alexey Kiselyov and Paulina Andreeva.


	 "Operation Neman" is a joint project of the REN TV and Zvezda channels and the online movie theater Wink. The five-part series is based on the legendary novel "The Moment of Truth" by Vladimir Bogomolov. The production of the series was handled by Star Media Vision. The project received a special prize from Rossiyskaya Gazeta, as well as an award for an original collaboration. The digital premiere of the series will take place in Wink (Rostelecom digital video service), and then the project will be shown on REN TV. "Operation Neman" will be included in the Wink Originals line.


	 The festival was held on March 14-15 as part of the CSTB.PRO.MEDIA forum. The organizer of the content festival of streaming platforms "ORIGINAL+" is MIDEXPO. The general partner of the festival is the Internet Development Institute (IRI non-profit). The co-organizer of the festival and the main media partner is Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The program director of the Festival is Susanna Alperina.


	 The projects were evaluated by a professional independent jury, which included experts in the field of cinema and the media. The chairman of the main jury was Timur Weinstein - Deputy General Director/General Producer of the NTV channel. The media jury was headed by Egor Moskvitin, a movie critic, program director of the Pilot TV series festival.

NMG projects win the ORIGINAL+ Festival

Russia has summed up the results of the 14th national award "Big Digit" - the main award in the field of multi-channel digital television. The celebration ceremony for the best projects took place on March 14.


	 NMG projects won in six nominations.


	 The audience award in the "News and Business" category went to Izvestia TV.


	 The best sports TV program was the program "Under Attack" on the UDAR TV channel, and the best children's TV program was the "Nastya and Vova Show" on CTC Kids.


	 The professional jury recognized more.tv as the best platform for IP TV, OTT.


	 The winner in the "Comedy/Sitcom" category was "Troubled Teens" show, the fourth season of which was broadcast on more.tv.


	 The Audience Award in the "Documentary" category went to the project "Zero", shown on more.tv/Wink.


	 In total, the organizing committee of the award received 139 applications from companies that presented innovative technologies, television and video content, as well as original films and series. The projects were evaluated by a jury of television industry professionals.

NMG projects won in six «Big Digit» categories

National Media Group announces the start of accepting applications for its new media education program "NMG Debut". The purpose of the program is to provide talented authors with the opportunity to test their creative ambitions in practice using the resources of NMG's assets and partner companies.


	 Students of screenwriting, directing and production faculties of Russian creative universities and film schools - both public and private - as well as graduates of these faculties (not earlier than 2020) are invited to participate in the program.


	 Up to 10 participants, selected by the program's organizing committee, will be paired with mentors from among NMG's directors, screenwriters and producers for a three-month period, during which participants and mentors will work together on a project (or projects) in the format of an individual creative workshop: each participant will have a mentor, and each mentor will have a participant. The interaction format is face-to-face.


	 At the end of the program, the organizing committee will decide on the fate of the participant and/or the project. Students who successfully complete the program will have the opportunity to become employees of one of the National Media Group's assets, and the authors of the most interesting projects will be able to implement them on one of NMG's platforms. The most talented contestants may be offered a first-look deal. The program participants will be paid a monthly remuneration of 25,000 rubles for three months.


	 The collection of applications for participation in the first cycle of the program will last until February 28. A list of required application materials is available on the official website of the program - debut.nmg.ru.


	 Program mentors include:


	 — Fyodor&nbsp;Bondarchuk, director and producer (Stalingrad, Invasion, Psycho);


	 — Zhora Kryzhovnikov, director, screenwriter and producer (Kiss Them All!, Call DiCaprio!);


	 — Alexander Akopov, producer (Brigade, Not&nbsp;Born&nbsp;Beautiful, Elizabeth);


	 — Anton Fedotov, director and producer (Kitchen, Rodkom);


	 — Dmitriy&nbsp;Tabarchuk, producer (Lanky&nbsp;Girls, Aunt Marta, The&nbsp;Junior&nbsp;Team);


	 — Pavel Danilov, screenwriter (Kitchen in Paris, the trilogy The&nbsp;Last&nbsp;Knight);


	 — Igor Tudvasev, screenwriter and producer (trilogy The Last Knight, Grand);


	 and other screenwriters, directors and producers.


	 CEO of NMG Svetlana Balanova said: "Everyone in the media market knows that a talented screenwriter, director and producer today is worth his weight in gold. We want to give young and talented professionals a chance to refine their project together with the masters of our industry. I am sure that thanks to this program new bright names will appear, along with fresh and interesting projects that the audience will love".

National Media Group launches talent search program «NMG Debut»

The HeadHunter recruiting service has released its rating of Russian employers for 2022. National Media Group ranked 9th in the category of "Large companies" (with 1,000-5,000 employees)


	 The ranking is based on three independent assessments: HR questionnaire + internal eNPS assessment + external candidate assessment.


	 The hh.ru rating of employers in Russia is a guarantee of comfortable conditions for employees, their loyalty and a developed corporate culture. A total of 268 companies were included in the list of finalists in the category "Large companies".

HH.ru places NMG among the top 10 best employers in Russia

National Media Group and the Yellow, Black &amp; White (YBW) film studio have signed a long-term partnership agreement.


	 Under the terms of the agreement, the studio grants NMG exclusive rights to a certain number of screenings on the holding's TV channels of new full-length studio films that are already in production and will be produced in the future. The agreement includes more than 40 feature-length films. At the same time, the agreements do not apply to existing franchises and projects that are co-produced with other TV channels.


	 NMG also gets access to the studio's content library with the ability to be shown on NMG TV channels, as well as through a paid subscription model on the websites of NMG holding TV channels and a video service more.tv. These include such famous films as Hotel Belgrade, Super Bobrovs, The Kitchen in Paris and others produced by YBW.


	 "We are pleased to announce a new phase of our partnership with such talented producers as YBW. YBW films are popular with the widest possible audience. Our viewers in all viewing environments will appreciate both the well-known hits and new premieres," said Svetlana Balanova, National Media Group CEO.


	 "National Media Group is our long-standing partner, and now we are expanding the boundaries of our cooperation. I am glad that the movie created by the creative and production team of our company will be shown to the widest possible family audience of the main entertainment TV channels of our country. In addition, an important factor of our cooperation is the promotional support on exclusive terms from NMG of feature films released in a wide theatrical distribution, which will allow projects to be more competitive in the fight for the audience," says Denis Zhalinsky, General Producer of the Yellow, Black and White studio.

NMG and the Yellow, Black & White studio are announcing a strategic partnership in the field of film distribution

National Media Group and the Faculty of Creative Industries of the Higher School of Economics are launching a training course "Impact Media and Social Communications" and an Impact Content Laboratory. The course was developed by the experts of the "Headliners. Impact Media" Club and the Laboratory of Social Communications "Third Sector".


	 The course will start at the HSE Faculty of Creative Industries in November 2022 as an elective for all HSE students, as well as a project seminar for students of the HSE Institute of Media. The leading speakers of the course will be members of the Club and representatives of National Media Group. The mentors are Maria Zalunina, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at NMG, and Nikita Tikhonov-Rau, General Director of the Third Sector Laboratory.


	 During the course, experts will talk about what socially transformative content is, consider impact content formats, teach how to create and produce it, measure social effects, as well as share how and where to find money to get an idea off the ground. Students will get acquainted with leading producers, directors, and film analysts, pitch their own projects, and learn how to fill out grant applications.


	 Speakers of the course include: CEO of NMG Studio Dmitry Tabarchuk, producer of the Troubled Teens series Natalia Golodova, CEO of Better and Director of Sustainable Development of Occam Vladlen Zamorsky, Executive Director of the CTC TV channel Natalia Abramochkina, President of the Center for social design Platforma Alexey Firsov, General Producer of the Black Box Production film company Konstantin Mankovsky, Director of Integrated Communications at the Internet Development Institute Alexander Lyapin, Deputy General Director of the Fifth Channel Marina Belova and other industry figures.


	 The Impact Content Laboratory will unite all joint projects of NMG, the Faculty of Creative Industries and the "Headliners. Impact Media" club, such as:


	 − a workshop of the master's program "Media Management";


	 − an elective "Impact Media and Social Communications";


	 − a project seminar on "How the Media Change the World for the Better" in the undergraduate Journalism program;


	 - an internship programs from the course speakers and from National Media Group;


	 − applied studies on the impact content media effects


	 Any HSE student can take part in the Laboratory's projects (for more information, please visit the website: <a href="https://cmd.hse.ru/impact/)">https://cmd.hse.ru/impact/)</a>.


	 "Firstly, the joint course with the Faculty of Creative Industries of the Higher School of Economics is a logical continuation of our three-year cooperation with the Master's program "Media Management" of the HSE Institute of Media Research. Secondly, it is a part of the systematic work on the development of impact media in Russia. This topic is in great demand by the market and it is necessary to develop a younger generation of producers, journalists, directors who are concerned with the topic of socially transformative content. In 3-5 years, they will become the creative elite of the media in Russia, so it is important for us to provide them with the basics of creating and producing media impact projects today," said Svetlana Balanova, CEO of National Media Group.


	 "We actively welcome the launch of the Impact Media and Social Communications course and the Impact Content Laboratory at the Faculty of Creative Industries. Our faculty is traditionally deeply integrated into key processes in the field of creative industries. Maintaining a dialogue and searching for innovative ways of interacting with leading market leaders, such as National Media Group, has always been our primary goal. These joint educational initiatives will hopefully contribute to the positive development of the market and create a young community of experts able to shape a new image of the future," said Andrey Bystritsky, the dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries of the Higher School of Economics.


	 Background information


	 National Media Group is the largest private media holding in Russia. NMG manages a diversified portfolio of assets in the production, distribution and monetization of high-quality information and entertainment content across all media.


	 The main assets of the holding include the leaders of the Russian media market: terrestrial TV channels - REN TV, Channel Five, CTC, Domashniy, Che, CTC Love, CTC Kids; Multimedia Information Center MIC Izvestia (as part of the portal IZ.RU, Izvestia newspaper, Izvestia TV channel, news services of REN TV and Channel Five); as well as newspapers Sport-Express, Delovoy Petersburg. The Group owns a stake in Channel One.


	 The holding owns the company "NMG Studio". In 2019 NMG launched an online service more.tv.

National Media Group and HSE launch joint course «Impact Media and Social Communications»

National Media Group announces personnel changes in the entertainment broadcasting segment. Alexander Akopov has been appointed the new Deputy CEO of NMG for Entertainment Broadcasting and CEO of the CTC TV channel. The appointment takes effect on November 23.


	 Now Alexander will be in charge of developing and increasing the operational efficiency of NMG's entertainment channel business, the online service more.tv, as well as the holding's own entertainment content production.


	 He will replace Vyacheslav Murugov, who has decided to leave the company.


	 "We are deeply grateful to Vyacheslav for his long-term contribution to the development of the entertainment business of NMG. Thanks to his brilliant industrial expertise and leadership, the holding's entertainment channels have held leading positions for many years in a row and received well-deserved attention from advertisers. Thus, the flagship channel of CTC over the past few years has been number one in terms of ratings in its target audience, and a leader of entertainment television," said Svetlana Balanova, CEO of NMG.


	 "We are also glad to welcome such an outstanding professional as Alexander Akopov to our team. He is one of the main media personalities of our country, who has many different successful projects in cinema and television and vast experience in managing television, digital and production companies in the media industry," added Svetlana Balanova.


	 "Joining the NMG team is a great honor, but also a challenge for me. The highly competitive Russian media market is facing large-scale tasks of content creation, distribution, and monetization under the new conditions. At the same time the entertainment segment of the holding has one of the strongest teams on the market, and I am glad to become part of it," said Alexander Akopov.


	 Alexander Zavenovich Akopov:


	 Graduated from the Moscow&nbsp;State University&nbsp;of&nbsp;Civil&nbsp;Engineering, completed post-graduate studies at the Department of Computer-Aided Design Systems, and worked in construction.


	 He began his creative career in the student theater and KVN. Since 1981, he began writing television scripts, participating in Central Television programs.


	 Since 1987, he was senior editor of the Main Editorial Board of Programs for Young People at the USSR Central Television, responsible for the organization and production of the KVN program.


	 In 1988, he and his partners founded "Igra — Technika" ("Video International" from 1991), one of the first non-state companies to produce TV shows and commercials.


	 From 1994 to 1996, he was Deputy Director of ANO TV-Novosti (now MIA Rossiya Segodnya). He organized and headed the information channel Business Russia on RTR.


	 In March 1996, Akopov became director of the production center of VGTRK, from 1997 to 2002, CEO of the television channel Russia-1 (RTR), Deputy Chairman of VGTRK.


	 From 2002 to 2015, he managed the production company Amedia and the studio complex Amedia Studio created by him with partners, since 2012 – the online service Amediateka, since 2015 – the production company Cosmos Studio.


	 As a producer, he has developed and released more than 100 television programs and series, the most famous of which are: Simple Truths, The Turetsky March, Brigade, Idiot, Poor Nastya, My Beautiful Nanny, Not&nbsp;Born&nbsp;Beautiful, Who Is the Boss in the House?, Tatiana's Day, Closed school, Ekaterina, Doctor Preobrazhensky, Elizabeth, etc.


	 Since 2009, he was a Co-Chairman of the Board of the Association of Movie and Television Producers (APKiT).


	 In 2013, he was elected President of the Academy of Russian Television Foundation (TEFI)


	 In 2021, he created and headed the Higher School of Economics Film Institute, which opened the training of actors, screenwriters, directors and producers in bachelor's and master's degree programs.


	 Winner of numerous TEFI awards (including four times as the best producer), Golden Ostap, EFFIE, Golden Eagle, APKiT, Golden Ray, Runet Award.


	 Candidate of Art History.


	 He was awarded the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" II degree.

Alexander Akopov was appointed Deputy General Director of NMG for Entertainment Broadcasting and General Director of the CTC TV channel

National Media Group is entering a new market segment and announces the creation of a film distribution company - NMG Cinema.


	 The company will distribute films in cinemas. The catalog will include full-length films, which the company plans to show in Russia. At the moment, NMG Cinema is negotiating with leading producers and film producers to add their content to the catalog.


	 Vadim Smirnov will be the head of the company. He has served as vice president of cinema distribution at Disney Studios since 2019. Prior to that, Vadim Smirnov headed 20th Century Studios CIS (on Fox) for 8 years. During his work at Fox, Vadim Smirnov took a direct part in the cinema premieres of such Russian films as Night/Day Watch, The&nbsp;Irony&nbsp;of&nbsp;Fate: Continuation, 9th Company, Heat, The&nbsp;Turkish Gambit, Battle for Sevastopol, The&nbsp;Balkan Frontier, Holidays of Strict Regime, Union of Salvation and many others.


	 "Going to the cinema is still one of the most popular entertainment for consumers. NMG's expertise in the creation and distribution of high-quality media content will bring this industry to a new stage of development. Meanwhile, entering new market segments will allow NMG to diversify its business and find new opportunities for synergy between the company's media businesses," said Svetlana Balanova, CEO of NMG.


	 Yaga and the Book of Spells, a family cartoon directed by Vladimir Sakov, will be the first release of the new film distributor. It will be released on December 29, 2022.

National Media Group is creating a new film distribution company

The Higher School of Economics and National Media Group (NMG), the largest private media holding in Russia, have agreed to jointly implement the Media Management educational program of the Media Institute.


	 "This is an extremely important and responsible event for our institute, we are very glad that our students will learn about their future profession and gain new competencies from those who hold leadership positions in this profession, the ones who keep our media industry going. This is the approach we consider a priority today, and we are confident that our cooperation will be successful and bright!" — Ernest Mackevicius, Director of the HSE Institute of Media, commented on the agreement.


	 Interaction with National Media Group will take place in two main directions: joint development of disciplines of the master's program and providing students with places for internships and work placements.


	 "We are glad to cooperate with one of the leading Russian universities. For us, this is an opportunity to transfer our experience and knowledge to future specialists and train staff taking into account the needs of the modern labor market. I am sure that the joint programs of HSE and NMG will not only contribute to the professional development of graduates, but also form their interest in their future profession," said Svetlana Volkhonskaya, Deputy CEO of Human Resources at National Media Group.


	 Training on the updated master's program "Media Management" started in September 2022. It involves close interaction with a potential employer.


	 "Our master's program "Media Management" is applied, it is very important for us to connect with the industry from the very beginning of training, because students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in practice and study the features of media management. It is important for us to understand the needs of companies and prepare specialists in demand on the market. Therefore, we want our cooperation with NMG to be mutually beneficial," said Tatiana Magera, the Media Management Programme Deputy Academic Supervisor.

HSE University and National Media Group have signed a cooperation agreement

The Media Telecom Company, a joint venture of National Media Group and Rostelecom, announces the renewal of the portfolio of paid thematic channels. Starting October 1, the company begins distributing KINEKO, SAPPHIRE and TERRA channels.


	 KINEKO is a TV channel of top Asian series for a wide audience. Over the past years, Southeast Asia has firmly taken the place of a supplier of successful TV series and film projects with worldwide fame. TV series of recent years of various genres and themes will be available daily and around the clock on the air of the channel — from mystical stories from the past to stories about life and business in modern realities.


	 The TV channel will present the entire palette of Asian film serial content — dramas, detectives, comedies, mystery, historical series. The basis of the TV channel will be Asian series: 70% are from South Korea, 20% from China and 10% from Japan. Among the already well-known projects: The Time We Were Not in Love, Penthouse, Ms Ma, Nemesis, Alice, Thoracic Surgery, Return and many others


	 SAPPHIRE is a TV channel of popular series with an eastern flavor for a female audience. The channel's distinctive cut will be modern Turkish content, which has undergone a rigorous selection process on broadcast television in Turkey and has won the love of viewers around the world. Turkish TV series are high-quality production, beautiful locations and attractive actors.


	 Viewers will have access to more than 1,000 hours of Turkish TV series annually, including the drama Miracle Doctor, the detective Big Little Lies, the action movie Collision, the melodrama Glass Ceilings and others.


	 TERRA is an entertainment and educational channel in the docutainment genre. Travel, history, science, wildlife, food, hunting and fishing — thanks to the variety of genres and topics, TERRA TV channel will attract the interest of the widest audience. 1,400 hours of exclusive content are planned on the TV channel, including the documentary series The&nbsp;Alaska&nbsp;Aces, Hollywood Weapons: Fact or Fiction?, Nick's Wild Ride, My Market Kitchen, Animal Special Forces, Top 10 Secrets and Mysteries and others.


	 Most of the channels' content is premiere in Russia. More than 90% of the content presented on the channels SAPPHIRE, KINEKO and TERRA has exclusive rights both for linear broadcasting and for VoD broadcasting.


	 Alexander Kosarim, CEO of Media Telecom, said: "We closely monitor the preferences of the audience, and are pleased to offer viewers top content on KINEKO, SAPPHIRE and TERRA TV channels. The first two channels present trendy Turkish, South Korean, Chinese and other Asian series that are gaining in popularity worldwide, while the third one is a dynamic educational and adventure content for the whole family."