Translated material
Gazprom-Media will divide NTV Plus into three companies
Gazprom-Media is considering the possibility of restructuring the business of the NTV Plus holding, in which the business can be divided into three companies, sources in the media holding said.
According to them, an option is being considered in which two companies will be engaged in the production of content (sports and cinema), one of the companies will continue to provide satellite television services and can be sold to Rostelecom in the future.
“Over the past year, the media holding has been preparing for the division of NTV Plus into three companies, for this even a consultant from Ernst & Young was involved,” the top manager told TASS. “The satellite operator will most likely be sold to Rostelecom, and film content will be sold both in the form of programs and TV channels.”…>
- The change in leadership at Gazprom Media was announced in mid-December 2014. The official reason for the departure of Mikhail Lesin from the post of head of the media holding, which he had held since the fall of 2013, was personal circumstances.
- The media put forward several versions of Lesin's resignation: a quarrel with the leaders of Channel One and NTV, dissatisfaction with the main owner of Rossiya Bank, Yuri Kovalchuk, who is influential in the media market; conflict with the editor-in-chief of "Echo of Moscow" Alexei Venediktov.
- NTV Plus is a satellite operator founded in 1996 that rebroadcasts over 200 channels. Among them there are TV channels of our own production: 13 sports, 10 movie channels, one in 3D format. According to SPARK, the revenue of NTV Plus in 2013 amounted to 9.4 billion rubles, net profit - 401.7 million rubles.