CTC Media boosted by channel gains

Russian broadcaster CTC Media reached its highest third quarter profitability level since 2009, with TV ad revenues climbing and two of its three Russian channels gaining market share.

Announcing its third quarter results, CTC Media said that its CTC channel had now completed its shift to the older adult segment of the 10-45 year-olds and that audience share gains in the third quarter helped the channel’s ad revenues grew by 11% year-on-year in ruble terms, surpassing the market growth rate. The CTC channel was the second most-watched broadcaster in Russia in the third quarter of 2013, it said.

CTC Media’s female-skewing lifestyle channel Domashny also saw its ad sales grow by 11% in the quarter, with audience share gains attributed to both acquired foreign series and locally produced shows.

Elsewhere, CTC’s Kazakh network Channel 31 increased its revenues by 28% in dollar terms year-on-year, while the firm said that its digital businesses now reach 18% of Russian internet users with revenue growing 85% in ruble terms in the quarter compared to last year.

Only CTC’s Peretz channel saw revenues dip in the quarter, which it attributed to a decrease in audience share of 21% due to “underperformance of certain programming” and increased competition from other channels.

“The Company’s overall revenues in the third quarter grew by 9% in ruble terms compared to last year, while our Russian television advertising revenues grew by 8%. This is in line with the growth dynamics of the overall Russian television advertising market,” said CTC Media’s Chief Executive Officer, Yuliana Slashcheva.

“Two of our three Russian channels took market share in the third quarter. At the same time, we carefully managed our costs, which allowed us to significantly expand our OIBDA margin by almost four percentage points year-on-year to 30.6%, which is the highest third quarter profitability level since 2009.”

Overall in the quarter, the firm reported total operating revenues of US$171 million (€128 million), of which 98% came from advertising. Adjusted OIBDA came in at US$52.2 million while net income was US$46.7 million.