MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. The streaming company Netflix has bought the rights to the Russian series Better than Humans, Yulia Mindubaeva, general director of the Start video service told TASS on Friday.
Start is an online video service offering best Russian films, series and cartoons.
In Russia, the rights for Better than Humans series belong to Yellow Black&White and Gazprom-Media holding.
Better Than Humans series will be released worldwide under the Netflix Original brand, will be translated in 25 languages and will be available exclusively in all territories except Russia and China," she said.
The amount of the transaction was not disclosed but according to a source of the Kommersant newspaper, it is about $1 mln, which is a record sum for Russian TV series.
According to Mindubaeva, in Russia, first 9 episodes of the series are already available on the Start video service, and in total 16 episodes will be released.
"This is a unique situation, when Russian viewers can watch the Netflix Original series before the world premiere on Netflix," she said.
The first episode was released on November 23, 2018.
Mindubaeva also noted that for the creators of the film series, the deal with Netflix is first of all the approval of a high quality of the original project of Start and Channel One by the global Internet giant.
"This is also confirmation that the service has significant growth potential both in Russia and abroad," she added.
About series
The action sets in the near future, where androids are serving the population in various positions where the robots finally began to help people, and even replace them in some jobs.
The megacity, in which the series is taken place, is awash with androids. They raise children, work as chauffeurs and security guards, and they are able to think and feel empathy. The main character, robot named Arisa is trying to understand how it is to be a human.
Netflix covers 190 countries and has an audience of 120 million subscribers.