STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’)(STO:MTGA)(STO:MTGB), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it has prolonged its exclusive live broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League football in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for another three years. The rights include, but are not limited to, broadcast coverage on free-TV, pay-TV, mobile devices and the Internet, until the end of the 2014/2015 championship.
MTG will broadcast all Champions League and Europa League matches on its free-TV channels and Viasat Sport Baltic premium pay-TV sports channel. MTG has broadcast coverage of the Champions League in the Baltics since 2002 and the Europa League since it was launched in 2009.
Estonian viewers will be able to watch Champions League Tuesday games live on free-TV channel TV6, and Wednesday games and Europa League games on pay-TV channel Viasat Sport Baltic.
Latvian viewers will be able to watch Champions League Wednesday games live on free-TV channel TV6, while Tuesday games and Europa League games will be shown on pay-TV channel Viasat Sport Baltic.
Lithuanian viewers will be able to watch Champions League Tuesday and Wednesday first pick games on free-TV channel TV6, while second pick Tuesday and Wednesday games, as well as Europa League games, will be shown on pay-TV channel Viasat Sport Baltic.
The rights have been acquired via TEAM Marketing, which is UEFA’s worldwide sales and development agent for the commercial rights to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.
MTG has the broadcasting, mobile and online rights to the UEFA Champions League in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, as well as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and broadcasting rights in Finland, Bulgaria and Ghana.
Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “The UEFA Champions League and the Europa League are two of the best international club football championships in the world and attract a global audience. By prolonging these key rights, we are not only consolidating our position as the leading pan-Baltic premium pay-TV provider with an unrivalled premium sport content offering, but we are also strengthening our successful partnership with UEFA and TEAM Marketing, who have created and developed these exceptional championships that are amongst the most sought after media properties. We are today better positioned than ever to provide viewers with the best in sports entertainment across our portfolio of free and pay-TV channels.”
Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting group with the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting operates 28 free-TV channels in 11 countries and 38 pay-tv channels in 32 countries. The pay-tv channels are distributed on Viasat’s own satellite platforms in 9 countries, as well as on third party broadcast networks (including cable, satellite and IPTV) and over the open internet. These free-TV and pay-TV channels and pay-TV platforms attract a total of 125 million viewers in 33 countries. MTG is also the largest shareholder in Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster (CTC Media – Nasdaq: CTCM).
Modern Times Group is a growth company and generated SEK 13.1 billion of sales and SEK 2.4 billion of operating income in 2010. 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 16.40 CET on 20 September 2011.
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