Record Sales & Higher Margins

Third quarter Highlights [1]

• Net sales up 4% year on year at constant exchange rates and up 3% year on year at reported exchange rates to SEK 3,106 (3,017) million
• Operating income before associated company income up 6% year on year to SEK 358 (336) million, with an increased operating margin of 12% (11%)
• Total operating income of SEK 514 (427) million, including SEK 156 (91) million of associated company income
• Pre-tax profit of SEK 439 (472) million
• Net income from continuing operations of SEK 306 (339) million and total net income of SEK 306 (359) million
• Basic earnings per share from continuing operations of SEK 4.71 (5.31) and total basic earnings per share of SEK 4.71 (5.63)

Nine Months Highlights [1]

• Net sales up 8% year on year at constant exchange rates and up 3% year on year at reported exchange rates to SEK 9,762 (9,484) million
• Operating income before associated company income up 7% year on year to SEK 1,382 (1,288) million, with a stable operating margin of 14% (14%)
• Total operating income up 17% year on year to SEK 1,879 (1,608) million, including SEK 497 (320) million of associated company income
• Pre-tax profit of SEK 1,791 (1,579) million
• Net income from continuing operations up 14% year on year to SEK 1,276 (1,116) million and total net income of SEK 1,276 (1,182) million
• Basic earnings per share from continuing operations of SEK 18.90 (16.80) and total basic earnings per share of SEK 18.90 (17.81)
• Receipt of SEK 145 (85) million of cash dividend cash payments from associated company CTC Media

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “All four of our broadcasting business segments grew year on year and contributed to record Group sales for the third quarter, which is the seasonally lowest sales period of the year. The Scandinavian TV advertising markets remained strong and certain of the emerging market territories showed higher growth levels as our media houses took market shares. Overall, the comps in the Scandinavian TV advertising markets are becoming tougher and the recovery in the emerging territory advertising markets is still lagging. The Nordic pay-TV subscriber base was largely stable quarter on quarter with the revenue growth reflecting rising premium satellite ARPU levels, whilst the emerging market pay-TV channel and platform businesses reported another quarter of double digit year on year subscriber and sales growth.

“We have continued to invest in our programming schedules, channels, platforms and subscriber acquisition campaigns across our existing and new markets, but still reported a higher group operating margin in the quarter when compared to last year. We will invest further moving forward and use our healthy cash conversion levels and financial position to develop the Group’s existing operations and explore new growth opportunities.”

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Conference Call
The company will host a conference call today at 15.00 Stockholm local time, 14.00 London local time and 09.00 New York local time. To participate in the conference call, please dial:

Sweden:       +46 (0)8 5051 3793
International: +44 (0)20 7784 1036
US:              +1 212 444 0412
The access pin code for the conference is 5260046

To listen to the conference call online and for further information please go to www.mtg.se.

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

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & Chief Executive Officer
Mathias Hermansson, Chief Financial Officer
Tel:                            +46 (0) 8 562 000 50

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

Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting Group with the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting operates 29 free-TV channels in 11 countries and 38 pay-tv channels in 34 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. 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 13.00 CET on 19 October 2011.

[1] This financial report includes the effects of the demerger and distribution of former MTG subsidiary CDON Group in December 2010. CDON Group’s results have been excluded from MTG’s operating results and cash flows for 2010, with the exception of the reported net income from discontinued operations in the Group’s income statements and the net cash flow to financing activities in the Group’s cash flow statements.