Russia’s MTS has dismissed the possibility of buying Raduga TV, the DTH platform backed by Modern Times Group (MTG).
Speaking in a press conference discussing MTS’ latest set of results and quoted by AKTR and Comnews, Andrei Dubovskov, the company’s president, said that there was really nothing to buy, with any potential gain being marginal due to “other encumbrances”.
Analysts welcomed his comments, pointing to the legal risks that would be involved in acquiring Raduga TV, the owners of which have been embroiled in a dispute with Roskomnadzor over licences.
As previously reported in Broadband TV News, last month the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) gave Digital Broadcasting, which is owned by Sistema Mass Media (SMM), permission to acquire 100% of DalGeoKom (Raduga TV). However, SMM has yet to decide whether to undertake the acquisition.
MTS meanwhile announced the launch of its own DTH platform, in partnership with SMM, on November 12.
In its latest set of results, MTS says that in terms of subscribers the DTH market in Russia is expected to grow by 42% from 13.1 million to 18.6 million between 2013-2018.
Its value is projected to grow by 40% to R31.3 billion (€552.2 million) over the same period.
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