TV6 BECOMES A PAY-TV-CHANNEL AND LAUNCHES TWO NEW FORMATS, "TV6 ACTION WORLD" AND "TV6 NATURE WORLD" Modern Times Group, Scandinavia's leading media company, has announced today to restructure its operations in respect of one of its channels and brands, TV6. The channel will be administered by MTG's multi channel platform ViaSat, the largest DTH distributor in the region. TV6 will be operated by ViaSat as of February 2, serving the platform with two new subbrands, "TV6 Action World" and "TV6 Nature World". TV6 Action World with a more male oriented audience will show high quality action movies and action series every evening like "Fair Game" and "Conquest of Paradise", as well as sport events like international and national boxing, golf and local and international soccer. TV6 Nature World will bring a variety of high class documentaries to the Scandinavian market, focusing on Scandinavian wildlife, adventure and outdoor. "I am pleased to announce this deal today. We have developed during the last years with TV6 one of the strongest brands in the Scandinavian TV market. Now in the changing TV market we are in the position to recoup our investments and to bring it as an additional strong format to our DTH platform, ViaSat" said Pelle Törnberg, President of MTG, today. "In the future Scandinavian television market, we see the best position for TV6 in a subscription based channel, thanks to the strong development of ViaSat and its packages in terms of subscribers and the increasing demand for thematic channels in the region. Further, there are substantial synergies with our other pay-TV operations, which will allow us to operate the channel with lower costs which will strengthen MTG's financial performance." "We are delighted to take over TV6 and its two new brands as the latest of several strong channels on the ViaSat platform", said Hans-Holger Albrecht, Chief Executive Officer of MTG's Pay-TV-Division. "By gradually optimizing the program concept of the channel, we will have a higher value for our customers, without giving up the original idea of TV6. We will extend the service in terms of markets and will have subtitling and dubbing in four languages, serving Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. I am convinced that TV6 will make its way with the concept in the market. Key advantage will be that we are able to build those thematic channels from the local perspective and content. This content has proven its success for us and will be the driving element for our ViaSat packages in the future. TV6 with its action and wildlife section will increase the variety of program genres in the ViaSat packages, allowing ViaSat to offer over 12 different channels in the market. ViaSat distributes and operates a multi channel and multi media package to the Scandinavian market. With more than 870.000 DTH customers, ViaSat is Scandinavia's leading platform, offering channels like TV3, TV1000, Cinema 3+, ZTV, SciFi, VH-1, Travel, Playboy TV, European Business News, The History Channel as well as ViaSatNET, one of the first Internet Services delivered via satellite in the world. For further information, please visit www.mtg.se, or email info@mtg.se or contact: Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO tel: +46 8 562 000 50 Matthew Hooper, Investor & Press Relations tel: +44 20 7321 5010 Modern Times Group MTG AB has seven business areas: Viasat Broadcasting (free-to-air and pay TV channels in nine countries), Radio (seven networks in five countries), New Media (the Everyday interactive TV portal, Internet portal, Mobile portal, and teletext services), Publishing (financial news and information services), Modern Interactive (home shopping, e-commerce, and logistics), SDI Media (subtitling and dubbing services), and Modern Studios (content production and library). Modern Times Group MTG AB's class A and B shares are listed on the Stockholmsbörsen O-list (symbols: MTGA and MTGB) and on the Nasdaq National Market in New York (symbol: MTGNY). MODERN TIMES GROUP MTG AB Skeppsbron 18, Box 2094, SE-103 13 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. +46 8 562 000 50 Fax. +46 8 20 50 74 (Publ) Registration No. 556309- 9158 www.mtg.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/01/05/20040105BIT00080/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/01/05/20040105BIT00080/wkr0002.pdf