World Media Economics and Management Conference 2016

This research investigates how trends of commercialization coexist with state control on Russian regional media markets. We reveal that the intersection point of these two processes is state informational contracts. These are contracts from the state aimed to support social responsibility function of media. However, we consider them as an important financing model of the media market. The sample of 2901 contracts from 6 Russian regions was studied. The results demonstrate that state informational contracts influence on the structure of regional media market in the following ways. Besides being an external regulator of the market, the state becomes an actor of inter-market exchanges with media companies. Being a customer they offer contracts for media companies that act as suppliers for the state. As a result media companies compete not only for advertisers and audience but also for contracts from state suppliers. Since advertising incomes are not enough for regional media companies to survive, such contracts become an important source of financing. As a result the state has a powerful tool of financial control over media. We conclude that this dual role of the state (external regulator and internal market actor) is very stable and accepted by the majority of media companies.