Netflix comes under pressure in Russia

Russian OTT services have demanded they are treated in the same way as Netflix in the country.

Vedomosti reports that the Internet Video Association (AIV), which lists ivi, Okko and Megogo among its members, has written to the regulator Roskomnadzor asking it to examine the localised version of Netflix in Russia.

It believes that this is visited by over 100,000 users a day, which means that it should be included in the register of audiovisual services.

This was created in December 2020 and currently does not include foreign services.

AIV has previously asked Roskomnadzor to look into Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and Google Play services but only received a formal response.

Legislation passed in 2017 requires all services included in the register to legal Russian entities, with the level of foreign ownership capped at 20%.

Netflix currently operates its localised service in Russia in partnership with the National Media Group (NMG). Broadband TV News