Sat, Feb 11 2012

MTG reports 300M euro loss mainly from Bulgarian assets

Fri, Dec 18 2009 12:27 CET

byNick Iliev

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MTG reports 300M euro loss mainly from Bulgarian assets

Hans-Holger Albrecht, president and chief executive of MTG.

Photo: Nadezhda Chipeva

Nova Television has cost the Modern Times Group (MTG) about 300 million euro, the company said in a statement on their website on December 18 2009.

Although it is not attributed to their Bulgarian broadcasting assets exclusively, it is Nova Television in particular that caused most of the downturn, the report says.

The decline was attributed to "the deterioration in the economic and financial climate and challenging advertising market conditions".

Earlier this month, on December 7 2009, Modern Times Group (MTG) which owns Nova, along with a number of cable channels, confirmed that it purchased the rights to broadcast English Premier League matches for the period 2010-1013 for an estimated 2.5 million euro a year. The matches will be televised on Diema and Diema 2 channels that beat competition from TV7 and Bulsatcom.

The amount was reportedly the highest amount that a Bulgarian broadcaster has ever paid to secure the rights to air matches from a foreign football league.
 
At the time, Hans-Holger Albrecht, president and chief executive of MTG, said in a media statement that  "the increase in our audience share over the past year clearly demonstrates the popularity of the programming on our channels. The extension of the Premier League rights and the signing of the Hollywood studio deals will further strengthen our schedules, and ensure that we can continue to offer viewers the very best in high quality entertainment".

Ten days later, Albrecht said that "our Bulgarian business has performed above expectations in terms of increasing its audience and market shares during the year. However, the adverse changes in the operating environment have delayed the anticipated development of the business and we have now adjusted the value of our assets accordingly".

"These impairment charges therefore primarily reflect the sharp deterioration in the economic and financial climate over the past year, which has negatively impacted advertising buying and asset pricing. The write-downs do not affect the Group’s financial strength."

MTG bought 100 per cent of Nova’s shares in 2008 for 620 million euro.

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