Start is a subscription-based international

streaming service Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

available worldwide with

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n-based production. The service is a part of START digital media holding that also includes production company Start, distribution company All Media and talent agency Start Talent. START Originals includes world-renowned projects 257 Reasons to Live (Beta Film, 2020 Canneseries Best Performance Award, 2020 Rose D’Or Finalist), Russian Affairs/Gold Diggers. Another START Original sci-fi hit

Better than Us ''Better Than Us'' (russian: Лучше, чем люди, Luchshe, chem lyudi, literally ''Better than People'') is a 2018 Russian science fiction television series created by Andrey Junkovsky, about an advanced empathic android named Arisa. I ...

after its premiere on Start became the first Russian production to be dubbed into 20+ languages and secured a

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Original status. Some of the series are currently being sold as formats for local adaptation abroad.

History

Start was founded in 2017 by the producers of

Yellow, Black and White Yellow, Black and White (YBW) Group is a Russian company, engaged in TV shows, series and movies production. The main company's partner from 2008 to 2017 (in 2021 partnership was restored) is "STS" TV channel. In the period from 2018 till 2020 YBW ...

— Eduard Iloyan, Vitaliy Shlyappo, Alexey Trotsyuk, Denis Jalinskiy. The company produces content in partnership with Disney Russia and other major distributors. As of August 2019 START had subscribers in 174 countries, 40% outside CIS. In October 2020 Start announced it had over 1 million paying subscribers.

MegaFon MegaFon (russian: МегаФон), previously known as North-West GSM, is the second largest mobile phone operator

(the second largest russian mobile phone operator) became a co-owner of Start in October 2020. As of February 2021 50% of Start shares belong to MegaFon. 47,5% belong to Start's founders and 2,5 % to General Director of the streaming service Julia Mindubaeva. Since April 2021 Start has been a part of so named digital media holding. Start holding also includes a production studio Start Studio that handles all rights to its original series, a feature film distribution company All Media and Start Talent agency.

Finance

According to one of the founders, Eduard Iloyan, total

investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

amounted to 2,3–2,4 billion rubles (over 36 millions $) at the end of 2019. As of 2020 MegaFon was planning to invest up to 5 billion rubles (about 70 millions $) more over the next three years. According to Telecom Daily and TMT Consulting reports, for two years in a row Start shows the fastest finance growth among streaming services in Russia, occupying 6% of the SVOD market.

Device support and technical details

Start's web version can be accessed via an internet browser.

Content

Over the past three years Start produced in-house more than 30 originals, including series Russian Affairs/Gold Diggers (3 seasons),

(1 season), Storm (1 season), Addicted (3 seasons), The Vampires of Midland, Mediator (2 seasons), Passengers, Container, Offside (2 seasons), The Counted (2 seasons), 257 Reasons to Live (2 seasons), A Good Man (1 season), Sherlock: The Russian Chronicles, and films Hotel Belgrade, Factory by Yury Bykov,

Text Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

by Klim Shipenko etc. In 2019 Start original series Better Than Us became the first Russian TV series released worldwide as a Netflix Original. It was dubbed into 20+ languages. In 2020

Amazon Prime Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...

bought exclusive distribution rights for Russian Affairs (season 1) as Exclusives and Originals after its release on Start. As of May 2021 Start had over 50 projects in production.

Awards and nominations

Start original series Storm by Boris Khlebnikov won a silver award at the New York Festivals TV and Film Awards in the Streaming Drama category. Text by

Klim Shipenko Klim Alekseevich Shipenko (russian: Клим Алексеевич Шипенко; born 16 June 1983) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Career Filming in outer space In 2021, Shipenko shot portions of a science ficti ...

won The François Chalais Prize at the annual Festival du Cinéma Russe à Honfleur (2019) for Best Script (Dmitry Glukhovskiy) and Best Actor ( Alexander Petrov and

Ivan Yankovskiy Ivan Filippovich Yankovsky (russian: Иван Филиппович Янковский; born October 30, 1990) is a Russian actor, best known for his role in '' Rag Union''. His father is actor/director Filipp Yankovsky, and his grandfather was the ...

) 8 The film won four Golden Eagle Awards (2020) for Best Motion Picture, Best Leading Actor (Alexander Petrov), Best Supporting Actor (Ivan Yankovsky), and Best Film Editing.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Android (operating system) software Companies based in Moscow Technology companies of Russia Entertainment companies established in 2017 Internet properties established in 2017 IOS software Mass media companies established in 2017 Online retailers of Russia Recommender systems TvOS software Universal Windows Platform apps Video rental services Internet television streaming services Subscription video on demand services Software companies of Russia Video hosting Russian brands Russian companies established in 2017