OREANDA-NEWS  On 01 October Rambler Media Ltd. (“Rambler”), operating one of Russia’s most popular internet brands announced the launch of “Rambler Kinozal”, a unique free video download service and the first of its kind in Russia. The new service, available at http://kinozal.rambler.ru/ , allows users to download high-quality, fully licensed videos free of charge and provides a basis upon which Rambler aims to develop video advertising on the Internet in Russia.

Anna Znamenskaya, Rambler’s Chief Sales & Partnership Officer, commented: “We are very excited about the launch of “Rambler Kinozal”. This new service allows users to download free videos, including popular Russian and foreign films, TV series, programmes and music, while incorporating targeted and protected advertising spots within the videos available to download.

By requiring users to provide three simple parameters (gender, age and interests) anonymously on the site before viewing the requested content, we can match our users’ social and demographic profiles with different types of adverts while keeping the actual video content the same for all users. We believe that video advertising will become increasingly important for advertisers on the internet as broadband penetration and time spent online increase fast in Russia. This is a global trend and we are proud to use the most innovative technology to provide this new service to Russian internet users.”

“Rambler Kinozal” currently offers close to 750 hours of content available to download, and those will be frequently increased. The site has Internet broadcast agreements with several production companies including “Starmedia”, “TNT”, “Craze” music library among others with more to come.

It is expected that over 1,000 hours of content will be available to download free of charge from the website by the end of the year.

“Rambler Kinozal” uses the latest technology from Israeli company Hiro-media, provided as part of total solution by UK company VoWeb, allowing advertising to be integrated to video content and protected from deletion. Users who wish to watch videos on “Rambler Kinozal” can easily download the software from the website, which is compatible with Windows Media Player and Apple Quicktime. Video advertising in “Rambler Kinozal” is sold by advertising agency Index20.”

For further information, please visit www.ramblermedia.com.