Ukrainians still love Russian series. The opening press conference for Kiev Media Week, a gathering of TV professionals from all over the world which is taking place in the Ukrainian capital in the period of September 7-11, revealed that series is the favorite content of Ukrainian viewers. Artem Vakalyuk from Media Resources Management revealed data according to which series occupied 31% of the airtime of the 10 leading broadcasters in Ukraine in 2014. This meant more than 27.000 hours of content for one year.

Shows (non-scripted content) got 22% of the airtime or 19.000 hours of content while movie and TV films – 15% or 13.000 hours. 7% of the airtime was dedicated to news, 6% to animation and 2% to documentary projects.

In the past year 66% of the aired series were Russian ones; 6% - co-productions between Russia and Ukraine and only 5% were Ukrainian series. As far as the 19.000 hours of shows are concerned – 85% of them were Ukrainian content.

As part of the conference, the manager of StarLightMedia Vladimir Borodyanski, the general producer of Film.UA Viktor Mirsky, Volya’s director of marketing Viktoria Tsomaya and the head of the local broadcasting council Grigory Shverk discussed the main issues facing the local TV market and the conditions in which it can overcome the crisis. SLM’s head commented that TV in Ukraine can be profitable if competition decreases. In his words, the local market is worth 2.5 billion UAH, i.e. 120 million USD for four media groups. He believes that in the future there will be only two media groups and a developed pay TV market. Another issue he noted is that his company has to pay for both analog and digital transmission since the digitalization process is not going forward. He noted that his company loses 80 million UAH because of this.

The managers also discussed one of the major issues which local broadcasters are now facing – the ban on Russian series. Borodyanski commented that in the current economic situation local broadcasters cannot create the necessary volume of local productions. He weighs this year’s deficit to be 3.5 billion UAH and calculated that the industry has lost around 80-100 milion USD because of the ban on Russian series. Film.UA’s general producer commented that the current level of local production is influenced by ten years of cooperation with Russian producers and it is hard to work with other countries. This is due to the language barrier and lack of tax incentives and state support.

The currency devaluation and difficult economic situation of the Ukrainian market are definitely having a negative effect on film and TV industry. As well as on acquisition and adaptation of foreign TV formats in particular.

Meanwhile, all the speakers of the panel discussion Challenges Create Opportunities. Global Market Conforms to New Realities of the CIS Region that opened international conference-screening Format Show 2015, agreed on the fact that it is very hard for the local prodcos to adapt foreign projects without Russian participation, particularly when the production costs have risen. But, Ukrainian producers keep on going abroad and trying to find investors and partners. And they do succeed, because Ukrainian-originated formats attract more and more attention.

Nicola Soderlund, Managing Partner at Eccho Rights, is sure that the time has come to focus on the original ideas, Ukrainian original formats – they are cheaper to produce and eventually may be sold abroad. As an example, Soderlund mentioned Ukrainian show Crack Them Up created by Studio Kvartal 95 and stated that it is not the only one he knows, that has a great potential. Still, local producers have to realize that the ideas of new formats should really be fresh and original, and in case with scripted projects the first thing is the strong story.

Kiev Media Week also organized a panel called Scripted Reality: Hybrid that Challenges Documentary and Drama in its Entertainment Factor. The participants discussed the specifics of creating scripted reality, and the perception of this genre by the audience.

Sabrina Duguet from All3Media noted that scripted reality is the most wanted type of TV content in Eastern Europe and the CIS. For instance, on these territories were produced more than 6.000 episodes of the local adaptations of different TV formats distributed by All3media International. And Ukraine in this aspect became one of the key territories for many international distributors.

As part of the first day of the event, Film.UA presented its huge hit The Sniffer which has been sold to numerous countries abroad as a ready made series and also as a format. This is Ukraine’s most-expensive series, with a budget of 500.000 USD per episode. As producer Mirsky commented during the presentation, foreign broadcasters wouldn’t settle for less since they got used to high standards. For the local market a series can be shot with a budget of 20.000 USD per episode but it can’t be sold anywhere abroad, he added. The Sniffer has also won numerous prestigious awards.