Updated June 3, 2008

   Media Technologies Center JSC (CMTec) listed among Alisher Usmanov structures has started Newstube video service that aggregates video content of nine Russian TV channels, as well as the resource users. At the moment the service has an experimental character and its owners do not have definite marketing policy. The company has to invest up to $10 million in marketing to compete efficiently with Rutube and Youtube, as experts consider.

   Now one can watch such TV channels’ plots on Newstube.ru website as Vesti, Euronews, TVC, Kultura (Culture), Zvezda (Star), Sport, 7 TV, Muz TV, A-ONE as well as video from GosTeleRadioFond archives. As say in CMTec, Newstube differs from competitive video services (Rutube for instance) by operativeness of content entry to the website: the resource visitors can watch news within several hours after it has been shown on TV. The website lists now more than 200 000 records since 1994, as it is underlined in CMTec report. Visitors will also place their video clips on the website. According to CMTec executive producer Darya Mityaeva, the company does not have exact plans yet concerning audience and earnings of the project. "It is an experimental service; therefore it is hard to speak about exact indices. We are going to make two advertising campaigns in summer and autumn, in the Internet mainly, and we will see the result achieved". According to Mrs. Mityaeva, advertising on the website appears only in 2009. Banner ads, as well as video ones, will be placed on the website also. Facilities received from advertising will be shared among content suppliers taking into account the number of video clips browsing. Online portal business model implies content sale to nonaffiliated broadcasting companies as well.

   Media Technologies Center JSC (CMTec) was started in 2005. Its core tasks are development and implementation of innovative projects in the Russian segment of the Internet. CMTec has earlier started two information portals: Pronovosti.ru and 40i.ru. In 2007 CMTec has amalgamated with AF Media Holding that integrates businessman Alisher Usmanov assets in electronic media area. The holding owns such TV channels as Muz TV and 7 TV also.

   Investment manager of ABRT venture fund Nikolay Mityushin says that his fund receives earnings from around five projects, like Newstube, but "none of them has become popular yet. Newstube design is of high quality, therefore it can expect some success". According to Mr. Mityushin, video services have not learned to earn yet, but their popularity is constantly growing. "According to data of Alexa.com resource, since September previous year Rutube.ru traffic has grown almost twice. On the basis of these data one can assume that the resource has now 8 million unique users monthly, and the number of pages browsing attains 70 million monthly".

   Finam Investment Company demonstrates almost the same level of visits as Rutube – 7 million users monthly. Thus, the number of Youtube Russian visitors is almost twice more – around 12 million. "Video content topic is popular in Ru.net. Websites of TV channels, printed mass media, news Internet portals experiment with video news", said the analyst of Finam-Information Technologies fund Leonid Delicyn. "Moreover, there are two powerful and well-known leaders in this area – Rutube and Youtube. Therefore, one has to spend many facilities for marketing in order to form a considerable news audience and bring a new project to the market". According to Mr. Delicyn calculations, Newstube owners have to spend around $7-10 million to promote the portal. "This money is enough to receive several million users monthly by year end".