Currently, 30-35% of the series aired on Ukrainian channels are Russian or coproductions with Russia. This was announced by 1+1’s GM Oleksandr Tkachenko during the Television as Business panel of Kiev Media Week. Two years ago, the volume was 80-85%. According to Media Resources Management data, presented during Day 1 of KMW, the volume of Russian series in 2014 was 66%, with 6% Russian-Ukrainian coproductions.

The ban of Russian content has forced broadcasters and production companies to show something and produce something which can also be sold abroad, instead of buying Russian content. Vlad Ryashin from Star Media commented that his company is ready to go the Bulgarian, Slovak and Polish markets where, in his words, there are 3-4 original series per season on the major broadcasters.

Ukraina’s director commented that efforts should not be focused only on tomorrow but there needs to be done something today to solve the media group’s problems. He said that now 8 hours of original content needs to be produced for each channel but nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, i.e. if this grows to 16, 20 hours.

Meanwhile, during the Cinemabusiness conference which took place on September 9 representatives from China commented that the two countries should work together on coproductions. The two reps of China International Film and Media commented that China has a special program about cooperation with foreign producers called Go Abroad and also added that China and Ukraine have already worked together, i.e. on The House of the Flying Daggers. The two countries also signed a memorandum for cooperation back in 2013.