MTG acquires Champions League rights in the Czech Republic

MTG acquires Champions League rights in the Czech Republic

Stockholm
April 25, 2012
11.00 CEST
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that it has acquired live TV broadcasting rights to UEFA Champions League football in the Czech Republic from the start of the next championship later this year until the end of the 2014/2015 championship. The rights include broadcast coverage on free-TV and exclusive rights to pay-TV, mobile and internet coverage in the Czech Republic.

MTG will have exclusive broadcasting rights to Tuesday matches and all but one Wednesday match from the qualifying matches, the group stages and the play-offs through to the semi-finals. The games will be broadcast live and in highlights shows on the Prima COOL free-TV channel and include local language commentary, studio analysis and interviews. MTG has also secured the exclusive pay-TV rights for the final.

Prima COOL is a general entertainment channel targeting 20-40 year old male viewers and is distributed via the Czech digital terrestrial network, as well as through cable, satellite and IPTV networks. MTG also operates the Prima Family and Prima LOVE channels as part of its Czech free-TV media house. The three channels have a combined commercial share of viewing amongst 15 to 54 year olds of approximately 37%.

MTG holds the TV broadcast rights to the UEFA Champions League in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Ghana.

The rights have been acquired from TEAM Marketing, which is UEFA’s world-wide agent for the exploitation of the commercial rights to the UEFA Champions League.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “The acquisition of these hugely popular rights for Prima not only builds on our long and successful partnership with TEAM and UEFA, but will also add a new dimension to Prima’s programming schedules. The Champions League is Europe’s premier club competition and features leading players from all over the world. Both Czech players and teams have played in the League and the interest amongst football fans is growing every year.”

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For further information, please visit www.mtg.se or contact:

Hans-Holger Albrecht, Chief Executive Officer
Tel:                               +46 (0) 8 562 000 50

Matthew Hooper, Head of Corporate Communications & Planning
Tel:                               +44 (0) 7768 440 414
Email:                           investor.relations@mtg.se / press@mtg.se

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 11:00 CET on 25 April 2012.

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