Page 144 - RusRPTApr21

Russia's market of legal online cinemas, excluding operator video services, video portals, and applications stores, will expand by 42% in 2021 to RUB39bn, research agency TMT Consulting said on Tuesday. The agency said that popularity of the subscription model, development of online cinemas within ecosystems, a rise of content refilling of services – development of own production of video and offering of exclusive content will increase in the next few years. TMT Consulting also expects a change of the market players following mergers and acquisitions and an inflow of audience amid shrinking availability of pirated content. The country’s market of legal online cinemas rocketed by 66% in 2020 to RUB27.8bn to become one of the few industries benefiting from the lockdown and remote work.
Russia to allow the sale of medicine online. The Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation has proposed drawing up a draft government decree by July 2021, which would potentially allow the sale of prescription medicines. One of the core risks is how to develop electronic prescriptions, according to the head of AITC, Artem Sokolov. They are currently available in the Belgorod region, while a similar pilot project is being tested in Moscow and the Moscow region. Our View: The online sale of medicines has been discussed for over three years, and it has been possible to sell OTC drugs online since 2 April 2020 (the pandemic-related lockdown measures accelerated that process). The commercial pharmacy market was worth RUB 1.13tn in 2020, equally split between the OTC and RX categories, while online sales in the pharma segment stood at 6.6% of the total. The RX segment could also join the broader online channel, in our view, once the technical solutions to check prescriptions have been confirmed.
144 RUSSIA Country Report April 2021 www.intellinews.com