Russia's media giant Gazprom-Media and China’s state-owned Shanghai Media Group have entered into an agreement to collaborate in the production and distribution of movies, TV and digital content.
Gazprom-Media has three subsidiaries including Russian broadcasters NTV and TNT as well as Central Partnership, a leading film production and distribution firm.
According to Variety, Dmitry Chernyshenko, the general director of Gazprom-Media, told the Russian news agency TASS that negotiations have focused on TV series, documentaries, full-length feature and animated films.
"We have already put together an offer of 300 feature films for the first phase of cooperation with Shanghai Media Group," Chernyshenko said. "China is preparing their part of the proposal."
It is not the first time Gazprom-Media is moving into the Chinese market. In Oct. 2015, Central Partnership inked a deal with China Film Group, the largest Chinese film distribution company, China Entertainment News reported. Based on the deal, Central Partnership will be responsible for providing Russian films for distribution in China, while China Group will provide Chinese movies for distribution in Russia.
Meanwhile, Gazprom-Media and China's People's Daily Online, which manages the Web portal of China's largest newspaper, People's Daily, signed a deal to exchange news, library and documentaries, in addition to working closely in the production and distribution of TV, movie and digital content.
Gazprom-Media hopes to sign a deal with Chinese search engine Baidu to distribute Russian video content in China through Baidu's iQIYI streaming video platform.
The company is also in talks with Beijing Cable regarding the distribution of Gazprom content on the Chinese firm's cable network, which would allow Gazprom-Media to acquire millions more Chinese subscribers.