Gazprom Media buys NMG stake

Gazprom Media has acquired an additional 7.5% stake in National Media Group (NMG), Russia’s largest media holding.

Kommersant reports that the vendor was Gennady Timchenko and the deal worth R11.12 billion (€144.9 million), with NMG’s total value estimated at R148.26 billion.

The latter figure is three times the holding’s R48.53 billion valuation in 2013, when Timchenko, one of the owners of the Rossiya bank, acquired the 7.5% stake from RTL Group as part of a deal involving Ren TV.

Gazprom Media is owned by Gazprombank, which lists Gazprom as one of its shareholders.

Meanwhile, NMG was formed in 2008 by the combined media assets of Rossiya, Severstal, Surgutneftegaz and Sogaz.

Gazprom launches sports channels, inks Chinese deal

Russia’s Gazprom Media has announced that it will launch nine sports channels on January 25.

At the same time, it has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG).

The nine channels are Our Football, “Match! Our Sport , Match! Arena , Match! Game, Match! Fighter, Match! Planet, Match! Football 1, Match! Football 2 and Match! Football 3. Most will be offered to viewers in HD.

Gazprom Media will also jointly produce the channels KHL, KHL TV and Equestrian World.

Meanwhile, the agreement with the SMG covers the coproduction of fims and TV shows, the sharing of libraries and coopertion in the development and distribution of cinema, TV and digital content. According to Dmitry Chernyshenko, the DG of Gazprom Media, the Russian company has already formed an offer of 300 feature films for the first phase of the cooperation with the SMG.

SMG is one of the leading media groups in China and its assets include 15 main TV channels and 15 digital pay-TV channels.

Significantly, the agreement is not the first one between Gazprom Media and Chinese companies.

Last October, Central Partnership, one of its subsidiaries, signed a deal with China Film Group, China’s largest film distribution company.