Start Video Service Start Media Start.Ru

START is a streaming video service that offers exclusive premieres of Russian films and TV series to users around the world in a single subscription without advertising.

Video service prime minister from the Russian film and television producer Yellow Black and White. START offers users around the world TV projects, film events of the year and TV shows in Russian, created specifically for subscribers. Movies and TV shows are available on all platforms as Full HD 1080p, iOS and device owners can download the content they like and watch even without access to. Registered to the Internet users are provided with 7 days of free access to the service.

Performance indicators

2023: Revenue growth by 17.4% to RUB 5.2 billion

In 2023, the revenue of the Start online cinema amounted to 5.2 billion rubles, which is 17.4% more than a year earlier. The service's net profit reached 305.8 million rubles, while in 2022 the company had net losses. This is evidenced by data in accordance with Russian accounting standards (RAS), published in April 2024.

According to Interfax, citing materials from Старт.ру LLC (the main operating company of the Start video service), the company's profit from sales in 2023 amounted to 483.5 million rubles, having significantly increased relative to the profit a year ago at 37.6 million rubles.

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Market participants interviewed by RBC named several factors that contributed to the growth of Start and other video services:

• the development of the ecosystems that own most online cinemas;
• increasing interest in watching Russian content;
• increasing the time that users spend watching TV shows;
• an increase in the number of subscriptions in one person;
• technological development of Russian video platforms (in particular, the introduction of children's accounts, availability on various gadgets and improvement of the recommendation system);
• production of series and other original content.

According to analysts, which RBC cites on March 15, 2024, Start accounted for about 30.6% of revenue in the Licensing and Partnership segment (this takes into account revenues from partner integrations, sales of content and its release in traditional film distribution on the big screen) in the online cinema market. This is the highest among video services. The Start company itself notes that the platform historically relies on the production of original content. Start shot the series "Mediator," "Vampires of the Middle Lane," "Two Hills," "Kept Women," etc.^[1]

2018: Consolidated revenue - over 800 million rubles

Start's consolidated revenue for 2018 amounted to more than 800 million rubles, subscription is not the only source of income for the online cinema.

History

2023

Megafon's share in the Start online cinema has become less controlling after falling under EU sanctions

MegaFon's share in the Start online cinema became less controlling after the Russian telecom operator fell under European sanctions. This became known on August 16, 2023.

According to TASS, citing a statement from the MegaFon press service, the company sold 5% in Digital Media Holding, which owns the Start service, "since they considered such a distribution of participation to reflect our relationship with this asset as much as possible." As a result of the transaction, MegaFon's share in the online cinema decreased from 50% to 45%.

Megafon's share in the Start online cinema has become less controlling after falling under European sanctions

MegaFon stressed that the company has never been involved in the operational management of Start, since this area is a non-core business for a telecom operator.

In our decisions, we fully trust the professional management team of Digital Media Holding, MegaFon concluded.

Who exactly got part of the share of Megafon, the operator did not disclose. The parties acted within the framework of the original agreements, the Start press service told RBC.

From the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities it follows that the reduction in the share of a telecom operator in an online cinema occurred on April 19, 2023. RBC draws attention to the fact that on April 12, MegaFon was included in the US sanctions list. According to the Start press service, the reduction in the operator's share is not associated with external circumstances. The company did not disclose the parameters of the transaction.

In terms of the number of users for the first half of 2023, Start is in seventh place among Russian online cinemas with 1.7 million viewers and a share of 65% of paying subscribers. In 2023, eight online cinemas at once had more than 1 million subscribers paying for services. In the top 3 Kinopoisk ivi OkkoKommersant in terms of the number of paid subscriptions were "," and, notes "" on August 16, 2023.^[2]

A fine of 3.7 million rubles for demonstrating LGBT content without labeling

On June 29, 2023, the Cheremushkinsky Court of Moscow fined the Start online cinema 3.7 million rubles for demonstrating LGBT content without appropriate age marking. The company was found guilty under Part 2 of Art. 6.21.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (distribution among minors using the Internet of information demonstrating unconventional sexual relations).

As representatives of Start explained to the Telegram channel "Caution, News," the trial concerns a fragment of the film "Ideal Strangers," and we are talking "about LGBT demonstration, not propaganda, these are fundamentally different articles." In particular, the administrative case is connected with a fragment of the picture in which one of the heroes makes a cuming out in front of his friends.

The court fined Start 3.7 million rubles

The picture "Ideal Strangers" is an Italian film that was licensed by our service. The marking "16 +," originally fixed in the rental certificate issued by the Ministry of Culture, has been changed on the platform, the project has long been available on START with the sign "18 +." At the moment, the legislation and regulations do not fully formulate criteria for age-related labeling of content and the definition of the concept of "LGBT demonstration," which greatly complicates the work of online cinemas, the online cinema said at the end of June 2023.

According to TASS, during the court session, company representatives called the evidence unacceptable.

There are no events and the composition of the offense in the case, we ask you to stop the proceedings, they noted.

In the second quarter of 2023, 33 protocols were drawn up for demonstrating and promoting non-traditional sexual relations, including in relation to large online cinemas, said Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, in June 2023.^[3]

2022

Actor Danila Kozlovsky sued 682.5 million rubles from the Start online cinema

At the end of December 2022, it became known that actor Danila Kozlovsky signed an amicable agreement with the Start online cinema in the case of the Karamora series. It is noted that following the consideration of the case, the artist and his company DK Entertainment sued 682.5 million rubles from the Russian video service. Read more here.

User Database Public Access

At the end of August 2022, it became known about the leakage of Start user data. The online cinema confirmed the information and assured that the vulnerability in the service has already been fixed.

According to the Telegram channel "Information Leaks," an unknown hacker has made public the database of users of the online cinema Start.ru in the form of a dump in the JSON format, probably unloaded from MongoDB. The leak size was 72GB, there are also many test records.

The Start user database got into the public domain

According to the analysis of the incident from experts of the DLBI darknet search and monitoring service, the current leak contains 43,937,127 lines containing the following data:

• name and surname in Russian or English);
• Email address (7,455,926 unique addresses)
• Hashed (partially md5crypt) password
• The IP address of the user
• country of registration (24.6 million lines of customers from Russia; 2.3 million from Kazakhstan; 2.1 million from China; 1.7 million from Ukraine);
• the start/end date of the subscription, the last entry and other service information (from September 19, 2017 to September 22, 2021.

DLBI experts reported that they selectively checked random entries from the dump through the password recovery function on the site start.ru and all logins (email addresses) turned out to be valid. The Start administration commented on the leak.

Indeed, we faced a very unpleasant situation. We have already fixed the vulnerability and access to our data is closed. Careful handling of personal data of users is very important for us, - said in a message on the Telegram channel of the Start Team online cinema.

It also states that the database is not fully relevant, since it contains data for 2021. In addition, it "does not have passwords in clear text, viewing history and, most importantly, there is no and cannot be bank card data and other financial information."^[4]

Start Air and Start World broadcast starts at Tricolor

START Air and START World began broadcasting in Tricolor. The Start Online Cinema announced this on August 4, 2022. Read more here.

Plan for the transfer of MegaLabs projects to its subsidiaries - Kwantera and Start

Since the beginning of 2021, MegaFon has been preparing to join Net Bay Net Holding LLC and MegaLabs JSC. Officially, this decision was made at the annual general meeting of shareholders at the end of June 2022. Recently, a corresponding record was made in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the beginning of the PJSC reorganization procedure.

As for MegaLabs, its projects will be undertaken by subsidiaries of Quantera JSC "" and START. MegaLabs employees involved in the development of MegaFon TV"" are transferred to the combined START video service team, since now the operator will develop both services on a single platform. here More.

Plan to combine the Start service and MegaFon.TV

The company and the founders of START plan to merge the two online cinemas. After the merger, a new content offer will appear on the START video service: premieres of original projects will continue to be released as part of a single subscription, Internet broadcasting of a large package of TV channels will be launched, and the offer of foreign films and TV series will significantly increase. MegaFon announced this on April 15, 2022.

Until 2022, MegaFon developed two video services for its subscribers. START (MegaFon owns 50% of the shares) provided a good offer of premieres of original series and films of its own production, while MegaFon TV played the role of a video marketplace with a large assortment: from TV channels to new films and TV series.

Already at the time of our acquisition of a stake in START in 2020, we said that both products in the company's portfolio are complementary to each other and each of them has its own unique audience. We are ready to combine these two sites into one to give maximum convenience to users, "said Alexander Sobolev, Director of Strategy and Business Development at MegaFon.

The transition to another format is planned from May 2022. START will offer users in 2022 more than 24 premieres of its own production: the next seasons of the TV series "Vampires of the Middle Lane," "Mediator," "Container," "Pirogov IP" and others. As well as films and TV series from Russian and foreign manufacturers, including a large catalog of children's content, as well as more than 100 TV channels. At the same time, MegaFon TV will be supported for subscribers throughout the year, and current MegaFon TV users will be offered favorable conditions for switching to START.

Combining two services - both in terms of content and in terms of teams - as well as focusing MegaFon's efforts on promoting one video service among its subscribers, will allow START to significantly increase its subscriber base and take an even more significant place in the market, "said START CEO Dmitry Gudumak.

Dmitry also stressed that special conditions for the provision of the service are being developed for MegaFon's new and current subscribers.

2021: MegaFon increases stake in Start to 50%

As it became known on January 27, 2021, MegaFon increased its share in the Start video service from 33.8% to 50%. The operator does not plan to further increase this indicator.

Together with the current team, MegaFon will continue to manage the company. Start remains a separate business and will retain its business model. MegaFon, as a shareholder, will support the development of the company and sees the demand for original Start content from subscribers, "MegaFon told Kommersant.

MegaFon increased its stake in Start from 33.8% to 50%, the deal is estimated at 2 billion rubles

The Russian telecommunications operator owns a video service through its subsidiary, MegaLabs. According to data from Kartoteka.ru, she owns 50% of the parent company of the Start holding, Digital Media Holding LLC. Before the deal, 15.72% of this company was owned by the founders and producers of Yellow, Black & White (YBW) Eduard Iloyan, Alexey Trotsyuk, Vitaly Shlyappo and Denis Zhalinsky, another 3.31% belonged to Start CEO Yulia Mindubaeva. As a result of the transaction, the shares of the founders decreased to 11.58% each, the share of Mindubaeva - to 2.5%, the newspaper writes.

The financial component of the agreement is not disclosed by the company. According to Mindubaeva, the operator's purchase of a share in the video service initially suggested the possibility of increasing it to 50% within two years. According to TelecomDaily, for 50% Megafon could pay a total of 2-2.2 billion rubles. A RBC source in the online cinema market estimated the entire service at 6-8 billion rubles.

Commenting on the deal, Dmitry Kolesov, Director of the TV and Content Department of J'son & Partners Consulting, noted that by buying Start, MegaFon receives not only an audience of a growing online service, but also a manufacturer of original content. According to the expert, exclusivity is important in the market, so all major players invest in original programs, films and shows^[5]

2020: Gazprom-Media sold 26% in the service of Films Forever LLC

In November 2020, the Gazprom-Media media holding withdrew from the capital of the Start online cinema, Vedomosti reports, citing data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. He owned 26% of the company - the owner of the video service Start Media LLC through a Cypriot company. The amount of the transaction is unknown.

Since November 5, Gazprom-Media's stake has been owned by Films Forever LLC. It is owned on a parity basis by the founders and general producers of Yellow, Black & White (YBW) Eduard Iloyan, Alexey Trotsyuk, Denis Zhalinsky, Vitaly Shlyappo. The remaining 74% belongs to Digital Media Holding LLC, co-owned by a subsidiary of MegaFon MegaLabs at the end of October 2020.

First Deputy General Director of Gazprom-Media Svetlana Balanova explained the exit from Start capital by the fact that the holding wants to "concentrate its efforts as much as possible on the development of its own Premier video platform." "At this stage of the development of the online cinema market in Russia, we do not consider it necessary to invest in parallel in two competing resources," she said.

As Kommersant previously wrote, a part of the shares in the Start video service has been pledged by MegaLabs JSC, owned by MegaFon, since January 15. MegaFon then reported that the company provided Start with funding "to increase the production of original content." Later it became known that MegaFon will become a co-owner of the service.

2019: Willingness to sell 25% to 49% of Start online cinema to investors

Production team Yellow, Black & White (YBW) is poised to sell 25% to 49% of online cinema Start to investors. "We are ready to let in a partner-strategist with whom we can scale the service and continue international expansion," YBW general producer Eduard Iloyan said in an interview with Kommersant in August 2019.

According to Eduard Iloyan, total investments in the development of the Start video service at the end of 2019 will amount to 2.3-2.4 billion rubles. "Taking into account the return for two years of operation, net investments at the moment are 1.4-1.5 billion rubles," he stressed.

Iloyan also said that YBW is in talks regarding investments in Start with "three players and expects to reach agreements this year." Now 26% of the video service belongs to Gazprom-Media.

For the first half of 2019, the revenue of the online cinema more than tripled and now Start has reached operating break-even. "Today, 300 thousand paying in 174 countries of the world use the Start subscription for 299 rubles per month," said Eduard Iloyan.

2017: Start Service Foundation

The service was founded by Yellow, Black and White in 2017.

The premiere video service with its own filmmaking Start.ru from October 7, 2017 became available for subscription for users from all over the world. The site broadcasts TV projects, film premieres and TV shows in Russian created for subscribers.

Kartina TV, the largest legal Internet television provider for Russian-speaking audiences, has become a partner of the Start.ru in international distribution. All movies and TV shows will be available as Full HD 1080 on all platforms, and owners of iOS devices will be able to download the content they like. All new items will be presented with local subtitles.

The main serial premieres of the Start.ru in 2017 should be original series produced in partnership with television channels and the "parent" studio Yellow, Black and White (YBW). So, on October 9, a week before the premiere on TV, cinema subscribers will see the family comedy "Ivanovs-Ivanovs."

The subscription cost for Start.ru in Russia will be 299 rubles per month, in other territories - from 3.99 euros per month. New users will also be given 7 days of free access to the service.

In December 2017, the holding acquired 26% of Start Media, which launched the Start.ru online cinema specializing in Russian premiere content.

Notes