☃️ Wink Freezes Content Distribution to Boost Subscriber Retention

In 2026, the Wink video service marks its 8th anniversary, having spent the last three years evolving as a joint venture between Rostelecom and National Media Group (NMG).

Wink’s primary strategic pivot involves a near-total halt on licensing its original content to third-party online cinemas. According to Volodkin, the company has completely phased out this revenue stream in order to maximize the platform’s value proposition for the end consumer.

While this move temporarily slowed down overall revenue growth to 13% last year, Wink’s revenues surged by 17.7% in the first quarter of 2026. This trajectory was driven by accelerated subscription revenue growth on the back of exclusive premieres, such as the series Lilies of the Valley: The Second Spring and After Fisher: The Inquisitor. A strong start to the year was further bolstered by the consolidated metrics of the recently acquired Smotreshka video service, which added over 1 million paying clients to the company’s portfolio.

Concurrently, Wink has calibrated its production volumes, releasing 16 original series in 2025 compared to 28 in 2024.

“Wink has concluded its content experimentation phase. Moving forward, we are focused on quality over quantity,” Anton Volodkin explained. “The average production cost per series has noticeably increased, driven by both industry inflation and growing project complexity. Our experience shows that just five to six key releases generate up to 80% of our annual results.”

The platform’s most ambitious project for 2026 will be the series Hard to Be a God, co-produced with the Internet Development Institute (IRI) and NTV, with portions of principal photography taking place in Iran.

Wink also continues to deepen its partnership with its shareholder, NMG. The parties have structured a new phase of synergy, positioning Wink as the official digital home for all content originating from the group’s television networks (STS, Domashny, Ren TV, and Fifth Channel). Popular TV properties will seamlessly extend their lifecycle within the Wink digital environment. Additionally, the streaming service has secured distribution rights for TNT network content.

Wink maintains a rigid stance regarding distribution architecture: the company has no plans to retail its subscriptions within the Kinopoisk ecosystem, which began operating as a multi-stream aggregator in 2025.

Commenting on data from market analysts (specifically the ICMR agency) indicating that Wink surrendered its number-two market share ranking by subscriber count to rival platform Okko, the chief executive voiced strong disagreement with the underlying metrics:

“What we are witnessing today is a narrative shaped by analytical agencies that cannot reconcile their own metrics. Whenever they attempt to evaluate Wink, they try to isolate a portion of our business and discount it from the total. We have no desire to participate in this measurement warfare. According to our internal financials, Wink is the clear number two by revenue, generating nearly 45 billion rubles last year. Furthermore, we believe we are number one in terms of profitability.”

According to Wink’s internal metrics, the service currently commands approximately 16 million paying clients (including users subsidized via ecosystem partnerships with banks and mobile network operators), while its total active device footprint exceeds 30 million. Volodkin expressed optimism that the future rollout of Medialogia/Mediascope’s Stable ID framework will bring much-needed transparency to the market, enabling the measurement of verified monthly active users rather than relying on sporadic responses from consumer telephone surveys.