The audience's attention turned to the news

The audience shares of all three STS Media TV channels - STS, Domashny and Perts - in the first half of the year decreased to the level of last year. The holding’s entertainment channels are unlucky with the information background: if in the first quarter they were hampered by the audience’s interest in the Olympics in Sochi, then in the second quarter the attention of Russians was diverted by events in Ukraine. Because of them, the audience of the news channel “Russia 24” has almost quadrupled.

STS Media reported the audience shares of its TV channels STS, Domashny and Peretz in their target audiences in the second quarter of the year, citing data from TNS Russia. The share of STS among all Russians 10-45 years old decreased to 10.2% compared to 11.6% in the second quarter of 2013. The share of "Home" among women 25-59 years old - from 3.5% to 3.3%. Finally, the share of “Pepper” among Russians 25-49 years old fell from 2.3% to 1.9% - this is a historical anti-record since the relaunch of the channel under this brand in October 2011. At the end of the entire half-year, each channel also showed a decrease compared to the same period: STS - from 11.4% to 10.5%, Domashny - from 3.3% to 3.2%, Peretz - from 2.4% up to 2.1%.

The STS audience has thus been declining for the third quarter in a row, states Otkrytie Investment Company analyst Alexander Vengranovich. In the first quarter of the year, some of the viewers were attracted by Channel One, VGTRK and NTV Plus, which showed the Olympics in Sochi, and then events happened in Ukraine, which also significantly changed television viewing, he explains. Barclays Capital analysts also link the decline in STS audience to the crisis in Ukraine, pointing out in their report that TV viewers “preferred news channels over entertainment channels.” The share of the most popular news channel - Rossiya 24 (VGTRK) - has indeed grown sharply, including in the target audience for STS, according to TNS Russia data. The share of this channel among Russians 10-45 years old in the second quarter increased from 1.2% a year earlier to 4.3%, and among all Russians over 4 years old - from 1.1% to 4.1%. Renaissance Capital in its report indicates that in the next three to six months the “number of positive catalysts” for CTC Media will also be limited and the holding’s shares will show worse dynamics than the market.

Over the last day of trading, CTC Media quotes on NASDAQ decreased by 5.32%.

For STS, the most important content is television series. Thus, the channel’s flagship series “Kitchen” in the first quarter, when its premiere episodes were aired, attracted an average share of 15.1% of the target audience. And already in the second quarter, when “Kitchen” was released only in repeats, its average share dropped to 12.9%. At the same time, in its reporting for the first quarter, CTC Media indicated that its costs for content in ruble terms increased by 4%: the holding continues to invest in content “to maintain audience share.” In particular, the size of the bonuses of the general producer of the holding, Vyacheslav Murugov, is tied to the audience indicators of STS. Thus, in 2013, the target for the average annual share of the channel was set at 11.7%, and for quarterly shares - from 11% to 12.3%. Mr. Murugov completed only the second of these tasks, receiving for this 20% of the maximum bonus amount of 19.39 million rubles. (in total he was paid 29% of the maximum remuneration and an additional bonus of 4 million rubles), it follows from the company’s materials. His bonus for 2014 is 40% dependent on audience performance.

Anna Afanasyeva

TV viewers are tired of entertainment