On December 25, the ownership of a share in Ruform passed to Interfax-TV (part of Gazprom Media Holding). Following this transaction, the Holding became Ruform’s sole owner with 100% of the shares. The deal amount is not disclosed.
The Holding intends to keep Rutube’s team and strengthen it as part of its plans to modernize the service. Roman Maksimov will continue as the company’s CEO. Content from Gazprom Media will be added to the video service’s library in the near future, and the Holding’s content is always in great demand among users.
Gazprom Media Sales House will be responsible for ad placement on the platform.
Gazprom Media customers will be able to access Rutube’s video inventory starting January 2021. The platform will switch to the classic AVOD monetization model with advertising to be available both on independent terms and as part of a consolidated model with other media that the Sales House oversees: television, radio and other digital outlets.