STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’) (STO:MTGB) (STO:MTGA), the international entertainment group, today announced that its channels will be available to viewers in Turkey for the first time from the beginning of 2014. MTG’s factual pay-TV channels – Viasat History HD, Viasat Nature HD, Viasat Explorer – will be launched on 1 January 2014 following the signing of a multi-year distribution agreement with Türksat Satellite Communication and Cable TV Operation A.S. (‘Türksat’).
The channels will be shown with Turkish voice-over on Türksat’s digital cable TV service Teledünya, as part of Teledünya’s premium tier package. The channel programming will also be available on the platform’s catch-up TV services.
Viasat History is a factual channel with a broad range of high quality, intelligent, award-winning history programming. Viasat Nature is a premium nature channel suitable for the whole family. Viasat Explorer is a male skewed factual entertainment channel featuring character-driven science, engineering and automotive programming as well taking the viewers to some of the world’s most exciting workplaces.
In addition to its leading position in the Nordic territories, MTG makes 34 of its Viasat standard and high definition pay-TV channels available via third party networks to subscribers in 33 countries across Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States. The channels attract a total of over 91 million subscriptions. Viasat also markets and sells pay-TV packages on its own satellite platforms in the Nordic region, the Baltics and Ukraine, and on the joint venture Raduga TV satellite platform in Russia.
Türksat is one of the leading satellite services in the world that provides all types of satellite communication. Apart from satellite services Türksat has two other types of main activities, cable services and information and communications technology. The cable TV broadcast services operates under the trademark Teledünya and offers more than 50 analogue and 114 digital domestic and international TV channels to more than 1.2 million subscribers over its fibre optic cable network.
Irina Gofman, EVP/CEO of Russia & CIS and Pay-TV Emerging Markets, commented: “Turkey sits at the cross roads of Europe and Asia, is the world’s 17th largest economy and has a population of more than 80 million people. TV and video consumption are also growing rapidly in the country and we will bring Turkish viewers a rich and varied range of factual TV entertainment experiences. We look forward to building a long and successful partnership with Türksat.”
Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “Making our products available to more and more customers is what MTG is all about. That is why we have rapidly expanded our channel footprint across 37 markets, and now is the right time for us to take a first step into this exciting 38th market with our partner Türksat.”
Fatih Şimşek, Türksat Marketing, Sales & Content Director, commented: “We are very excited to be the cable operator that launches Viasat History HD, Viasat Nature HD and Viasat Explorer in Turkey. There is great interest in history themed channels and a high level of customer demand for such content. Viasat History HD will certainly fill this gap and we are confident that our customers will enjoy watching the channel. Viasat Nature HD and Viasat Explorer will also complement the existing channel offering on our platform.”
***
Modern Times Group (MTG) is an international entertainment 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 net sales of SEK 13.3 billion in 2012. 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 17 December 2013.
This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com