VIASAT TO LAUNCH BROADBAND TV IN FIVE SWEDISH CITIES Modern Times Group MTG AB, the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that Viasat Broadcasting has reached an agreement with five broadband Urban Networks in Sweden (Halmstad, Västerås, Linköping, Mjölby and Katrineholm) to broadcast TV via broadband ('IP-TV'). Viasat will start broadcasting Digital-TV via broadband in these areas during 2005 and will initially target the 36,000 households with fibre connections. The launch will significantly increase the competition for cable-TV operators. Viasat has undertaken to apply the Urban Network's open platform standard "TV Declaration", which enables households to choose freely between the TV package offerings in the market, regardless of each household's technical equipment and supplier. The standard has been adopted by twenty different urban networks in Sweden and is recognised by The Swedish Urban Network Association, The Swedish Union of Tenants, SABO (the Swedish Association of Municipal Housing Companies) as well as by The Swedish Property Federation. This agreement follows Viasat's announcement in August of a ground-breaking agreement with Swedish broadband network operator Bredbandsbolaget to make Viasat multi-channel pay-TV packages available to 300,000 customers in Sweden with fibre connections. Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: "This agreement changes the home entertainment landscape in Sweden's cities by providing viewers with choice, as individual households will be able to choose which TV packages they want to receive. The agreement is part of our strategy to make Viasat's market-leading sports, movie and documentary channels as broadly available as possible on multiple distribution platforms. It is a 'plug-and-play' solution, enabling customers to plug new set top boxes directly into the broadband connection socket, and also opens up the possibility of enhanced TV services in the future including Video-on-Demand". For further information, please visit www.mtg.se, email info@mtg.se, or contact: Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO tel: +46 (0) 8 562 000 50 Matthew Hooper, Corporate Communications tel: +44 (0) 20 7321 5010 Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting group with operations in more than 30 countries around the world. MTG is the largest Free-to-air and Pay-TV operator in Scandinavia and the Baltics, the largest shareholder in Russia's fourth largest television network, and the number one commercial radio operator in the Nordic region. The Viasat DTH satellite TV platform offers digital multi-channel TV packages of 50 own-produced and third party entertainment channels to viewers in 15 countries across Europe and Viasat TV channels now reach over 50 million people every day. Modern Times Group MTG AB class A and B shares are listed on the Stockholmsbörsen O-list (symbols: MTGA and MTGB ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/11/04/20041103BIT22210/wkr0001.pdf