The Deficit of Ukrainian TV Industry is around 3.5 billion UAH

The V International mediaforum KYIV MEDIA WEEK started on the 7^th of September and traditionally gathered media industry professionals from Ukraine, Europe, the CIS and other parts of the world. The main theme of KYIV MEDIA WEEK 2015 is Media Business in the Era of Transformations: Challenges, Prospects, Opportunities.

Mediaforum opened with a press conference, which began with a presentation by the head of the analytical department of Media Resources Management company Artem Vakalyuk who told about the structure of broadcasted content of Top-10 leading Ukrainian TV channels. 

One of the most important issues discussed during the press conference, was the ban of the large portion of Russia-produced films and TV-series and its influence on the Ukrainian television production and broadcasting market. The problem was discussed by General Producer of FILM.UA Group Victor Mirsky, Head of StarLightMedia Vladimir Borodyansky, marketing director of VOLIA company Viktoriya Tsomaya and the head of The National Council of Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine Grigory Shverk.

Vladimir Borodyansky noted that in prevailing economic conditions, Ukrainian producers are not able to generate the amount of content that the local market needs. "We estimate the deficit of the industry this year somewhere around 3.5 billion UAH. That is the approximate amount of money that we need to get from the outside" - said the head of StarLightMedia Vladimir Borodyansky. According to his calculations, the industry as a result of the prohibition of Russia-produced content lost about $80-100 million at once.

According to Victor Mirsky, the current production level in Ukraine is the result of ten years of cooperation with Russia. And for obvious reasons shooting co-productions with other countries is much more difficult. General producer of FILM.UA attributes this to the language issue, and the absence of legislative initiatives that provide tax-relief or cash-rebate incentives to foreign and local producers.

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