Content companies from Ukraine unite for combined presence at MipTV

Distribution companies from war-torn Ukraine are coming together in a shared stand at the MipTV programme market in Cannes next month, as the Russian invasion moves towards its fourth week.

C21 understands that Film.UA, StarLight Media, 1+1 Media Group and Media Group Ukraine (MGU) will be sharing the stand – R7.L19 in the Riviera of the Palais des Festivals. There will also be a session about Ukraine added to the agenda on the Monday to further boost awareness of programming from the devastated European country.

RX France (formerly Reed Midem), which operates the MipTV and Mipcom markets, gave the pavilion to the Ukrainian distributors without charge, alongside a number of digital passes for producers from that country who are unable to attend.

Victoria Yarmoshchuk

Film.UA is one of Ukraine’s biggest film and TV production studios and is behind series such as crime drama Hide & Seek, distributed by ZDF Enterprises, and STB period drama Love in Chains, which has also been broadcast to high numbers on TVP in Poland. Film.UA is also coproducing a drama called Monster Inside with European and Canadian partners.

StarLight Media owns and operates male-skewing channel ICTV; STB, aimed at a female audience; and Novy Channel, which targets 25- to 35-year-olds. It also has international channel ICTV Ukraine, music video television channels M1 and M2, and niche OCE TV. Its titles include crime drama Bruce, detective comedy Marshal and OTT drama Early Birds.

1+1 Media, meanwhile, comprises seven Ukrainian TV channels, among them 1+1, 2+2, TET, PlusPlus, Bigudi, Unian TV and 1+1 International. Its titles include life-swap reality series Mistress into Maid, dating format Blind Marriage, young-adult drama The School and comedy-drama Sex, Insta & ZNO.

Oleksandr Bohutskyi

Lastly, MGU owns and operates channels including Channel Ukraine, youth network NLO-TV and streamer OLL.TV. MGU’s programming includes dramas Ruby Ring and Rainflower, which were adapted from dramas originally from South Korean broadcasters KBS and SBS respectively, drama Markuss and Croatian drama coproduction The Silence.

“The fact that the Ukrainian delegation will be present at MipTV in Cannes, despite being frustrated and scared about our current situation, proves our morale is high and we are ready to work even harder than ever before,” Film.UA CEO Victoria Yarmoshchuk told C21.

“Our country now has the mission to prove to the world that Ukraine is a home for outstanding stories, Ukraine is a home for highly professional creative teams and producers, and when the war comes to an end Ukraine will take its rightful place in the European media landscape.”

Kateryna Udut

StarLight president Oleksandr Bohutskyi told C21: “Business as we knew it stopped in a single day [on February 24]. Today, we don’t have our regular income sources. We’re unable to work with commercial advertisers. We can only keep going with the support and backing of our international community. So we are more actively selling content on the international markets.”

Kateryna Udut, CEO of Kyiv Media Week organiser MRM, added: “I’m proud that MRM is part of this initiative. It’s so inspiring that so many colleagues are ready to be involved and stand up for the Ukrainian media industry, even during such difficult times. It proves our market is not frozen but confident in its strength and more than ever before is open to new partnerships across the globe.”

The companies uniting at MipTV comes after all Ukraine’s main commercial broadcasters – StarLight Media, 1+1 Media, Inter Media Group and MGU, as well as public broadcaster UA:PBC (aka Suspilne) – cleared their schedules following the Russian invasion and started working together to broadcast a rolling news and information service called United News.

This voluntary cooperation between Ukraine’s broadcasters was eventually cemented into law on March 20 after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree that combines all national TV channels into one platform, citing the need for a “unified information policy” under martial law. The move sees the end of privately owned Ukrainian TV channels for the foreseeable future.