In 2018 Russia’s largest online cinema ivi starts to sell the application of Rutube on the Smart TV platform on an exclusive basis, as well as the inventory of applications of part ners of the video portal (Peers.TV and Vintera.TV). Until now, Gazprom-Media Digital was providing the advertising opportunities of Rutube in Smart TV. The transfer of advertising inventory of Rutube and its partners to ivi became part of arrangements between online cinema and seller announced last fall. Advertisers will have access to a total audience of up to 20 million users (7 million unique devices) and more than 700 million ads.

The offer is available for advertisers in three packages: “Premium package with cross-placement in ivi and Rutube applications”; “Coverage package with cross-placement throughout the network for maximum coverage of the audience of Smart TV “and package” Prime time with placement in time slot 18-23″.

Viewers spend more and more time watching legal video content via Smart TV, including the content of TV channels and this trend will continue for a long time. According to the study of the audience of Smart TV (source-Mediascope, December 2017), on average, watching Smart TV is 2 hours 16 minutes a day, which is comparable to traditional TV watching. And despite the fact that TV holds the leading position among Russian media, for many it is already obvious that there is a shift of interest of viewers towards online video services.

Along with this, the popularity of Smart TV as the most comfortable screen for long-term viewing is growing. Today the number of Russian users coming to the Internet via Smart TV is about 17% of all Internet users, and the number of Smart TV devices – 17.6 million, at the same time, the percentage connected to the Internet is 82% or 14.5 million. And this is only devices. If we talk about the audience, according to the same study of Mediascope, on average there are 3 people in front of the screen while watching Smart TV (only 9% of users watch Smart TV alone), and the average household size with a connected Smart TV is 3.3 people. And the figures are growing from year to year. Thus, over the past five years, the number of Smart TVs in Russia has increased by more than 6 times – from 2.8 million in 2012 to 17.6 million in the first half of 2017, and the penetration rate increased by 9 percentage points.

Smart TV is one of the most favorable platforms for emotional engagement with the brand: the quality and the value of the contact formed at the junction of high-quality inventory, valuable for the audience of the product and loyalty of the audience at the moment of contact. Bonuses – the absence of fraud and 100% quality of accommodation (visibility and brand safe inventory).

As we remember, following the results of three quarters of 2017, digital budgets caught up with TV budgets for the first time. This fact clearly demonstrates the steady growth of advertisers ‘ interest in the digital format and the smooth flow of budgets from TV to digital. And the creation of Smart TV network is a logical step in the development of this trend. TV advertisers will receive guaranteed completion of coverage to their TV companies, thus covering not only users of online cinema, but also television viewers who switched to online. Among the other advantages of the network is the ability to choose shows in Prime time, a large selection of television content and traditional targeting by content”, – says Alexandra Strelkova, commercial Director of the Department of advertising sales of online cinema ivi.

“By transferring all of its advertising video content to GPMD on an exclusive basis, ivi asked us to support the creation of a seller structure specializing in the implementation of advertising on Russian Smart TV platforms,” says Ekaterina Kind, commercial Director of Gazprom Media Digital. – In January we started implementing advertising opportunities in the player ivi.ru on stationary computers (desktop) and mobile devices (mobile) and t Internet cinema has formed its advertising network in Smart TV. We hope that in the hands of a specialized player with experience in this field, the advertising resources of Russian Smart TV platforms will contribute to the accelerated development of this market segment.”