MTS and Channel One Russia team up for advanced TV JV

Russian service provider MTS and state-owned broadcaster Channel One are to create a joint venture to develop personalised TV services, audience behaviour analytic tools and content recommendation systems.

The JV will also develop tools to develop targeted and personalised advertising.

Channel One will also provide MTS’s media and production unit, MTS Media, with rights to content from its catalogue as well as exclusive new content.

“The partnership of MTS and Channel One was made possible thanks to a new stage in the development of television and new technologies for delivering content and is based on mutually beneficial cooperation. Our common strategic goal is to provide the largest possible number of viewers with easy and convenient access to the best programmes, films and series using advanced technologies,” said Igor Mishin, MTS Vice President for Media Business Development.

“Our joint company with MTS is created for one thing – for the future – and it is already here. Many market players have not yet perceived this and are working with yesterday’s models. But we believe that multiplexes and streaming platforms are an intermediate and short-lived phase of the transformation of 20^thcentury television into 21^stcentury television. Our joint efforts will help tens of millions of Russian users and viewers experience it today. We are proud of our alliance with the largest Russian telecom and we dare to believe that in us MTS is partnering with the leading content producer in the country,” said Konstantin Ernst, Director General of Channel One.