Netflix And Russia's NMG Will Be Launching A Localised Version Of The Service

A statement by Russia's National Media Group (NMG) said that Netflix, Inc. will be launching a Russian-language version of the service.

According to a report by the Broadband TV News, the California-based media services provider and production company will be teaming up with NMG -Russian holding group which accounts for about 25% of the country's TV market - and would be launching the localised version by mid-October.

NMG Chief Executive Olga Paskina confirmed the company's linkage with Netflix and said that the holding will soon become the operator of the Russia's Netflix service.

Although the international version of Netflix has been available in Russia for over five years, it has been getting reviews with regards to its limited Russian-language subtitles or dubbing. Viewers who want to subscribe to Netflix products are also finding it hard to make payments as the said version is only accepting euros.

The up-and-coming Russian-language version of the service will serve to settle these issues and in the next quarter of 2020, NMG and Netflix are anticipating that the Russian subscribers will be getting full access to a new UI equipped with Russian subtitles and dubbing, as well as the ability to make payments in Russian Roubles.

A source told Broadband TV News that the duo is planning to release around 40 Russian films during its launching and that they are targetting to hit 100 films before the end of 2020. Such films will also be made available to subscribers from other parts of the globe.

The partnership is expected to comply with the Russian media legislation which stipulates that foreign players can only hold 20% of a company. It is also worthy to note that the agreement does not hold NMG accountable of creating any additional original programming for the localised service.

Subscriptions for the Netlix plans will be around R599 for the basic plan, R799 for the standard plan and R999 for the premium plan.

In the past weeks, Netflix has released localised versions of its service to countries such as India and Malaysia thereby increasing the current number of language versions to 33.