STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
Modern Times Group MTG AB (STO:MTGA)(STO:MTGB), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it is increasing the number of regional broadcasts for its TV3 free-TV channel in Sweden from 6 to 19 today. The same programming content is broadcast across all of the regions but separate advertising has now been included in each regional broadcast. MTG has also combined its advertising sales forces to offer a unique and powerful combination of TV, Radio and online advertising for the national, regional and local market customers.
The launch reflects MTG´s focus on delivering even greater value to its advertising customers by enabling them to purchase regionally specific advertising and to buy a unique blend of different media that reach a higher proportion of their target audiences throughout the day. Regional advertising in Sweden accounted for approximately half of the SEK 28 billion total annual advertising media spend in 2010 according to the IRM Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics. This regional market has historically been dominated by print media, with TV only accounting for approximately 5% of the market in 2010.
The launch of the 19 broadcasting regions follows the merger of MTG’s TV, Radio and online advertising sales forces into one unit in 2011. This enables MTG’s Swedish multi-channel media house to offer national, regional, and local advertising airtime across all three media types on either a combined or separate basis. The packaged sales offering includes TV3, MTG radio stations RIX FM and Bandit, as well as the TV3 Play, TV6 Play and TV8 Play online catch-up TV services.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “We announced this initiative in May last year and have been preparing for it since, by restructuring our sales teams and implementing the necessary technical and organisational changes. Not only has this local and regional advertising market been dominated by print media in the past, but the small TV share of the market has also been dominated by the incumbent broadcaster. This structure is like the national TV advertising market of years gone by and we are determined to change itto be more in line with a recognisable modern media market. Furthermore, the packaging of our media and combining of our sales forces offers advertisers a unique and game changing reach in drive time, day time and prime time, which reflects the way in which people are increasingly consuming media.”
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Modern Times Group (MTG) is an international entertainment broadcasting group with operations that span four continents and include free-TV, pay-TV, radio and content production businesses. MTG’s Viasat Broadcasting operates free-TV and pay-TV channels, which are available on Viasat’s own satellite platforms and third party networks, and also distributes TV content over the internet. MTG is also the largest shareholder in CTC Media, which is Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster.
Modern Times Group is a growth company and generated record net sales of SEK 13.5 billion in 2011. MTG’s Class A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm’s Large Cap index under the symbols ‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’.
The information in this announcement is that which Modern Times Group MTG AB is required to disclose under the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. It was released for publication at 08:00 CET on 27th February 2012.
For further information, please visit www.mtg.se
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