VIASAT TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL ACROSS SCANDINAVIA

VIASAT TO PROVIDE COVERAGE OF ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE FOOTBALL ACROSS SCANDINAVIA

Stockholm
July 1, 2010
08.00 CEST
Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that its TV 2 Sport joint venture with TV 2 in Denmark, will launch two new TV 2 Sport Premier League pay-TV channels, which will provide live coverage of Barclays Premier League football matches for the next three years. This follows the earlier announcements by Viasat of the acquisition of the exclusive rights to English Premier League football in Sweden, and the carriage of three TV 2 HD channels featuring live coverage of Premier League games in Norway. Viasat will therefore be the only pan-Scandinavian pay-TV operator to offer Barclays Premier League coverage to its subscribers in all three countries.

TV 2 Sport Premier League (standard definition) and TV 2 Sport Premier League HD will be launched on the Viasat satellite platform and third party IPTV networks in Denmark on Friday 13 August 2010, and will provide coverage of all 380 matches during the Premier League season. The channels will be broadcast 24 hours per day, seven days a week and 365 days per year.

Danish TV 2 Sport standard and high definition subscribers will receive the new standard or high definition channels as part of their existing Viasat pay-TV subscriptions. Access to the TV 2 Sport Premier League HD channel requires a Viasat HD subscription, an HD-ready TV and an HD box from Viasat. 

Viasat’s Danish pay-TV subscribers already receive coverage of the Danish Superliga, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League and French League 1, which is broadcast on the TV 2 Sport and TV 2 Sport HD joint venture pay-TV channels, or on Viasat’s own TV3+, TV3+ HD and TV3 PULS free-TV channels.

MTG announced at the end of March that Viasat Broadcasting had acquired the exclusive television broadcasting rights to the Barclays Premier League in Sweden for the next three seasons, and that coverage would be broadcast on its Viasat Fotboll, Viasat Sport and Viasat Sport HD pay-TV channels, as well as on a new dedicated Viasat Premier League HD channel. Viasat’s Swedish sports channels are made available on the Viasat satellite pay-TV platform and all major third party IPTV and cable networks.

MTG also announced at the beginning of June that Viasat Broadcasting had signed an agreement with Norwegian broadcasting group TV 2 AS to distribute TV 2’s three Premier League channels – TV 2 Premier League HD, TV 2 Premier League HD 2 and TV 2 Premier League HD 3 – on its Norwegian satellite pay-TV platform for the next three seasons.

MTG already had the broadcasting rights to the Barclays Premier League in Bulgaria for the next three seasons.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: “We are now the only pay-TV operator offering English Premier League football coverage on a pan-Scandinavian basis. This changes the Scandinavian pay-TV broadcasting landscape in terms of premium sports coverage, and clearly positions Viasat as the home of premium sports entertainment by adding to our already extensive portfolio of local and international sports rights. Not only will subscribers be able to watch matches from one of the most exciting leagues in the world, with local language commentary, but they will also be able to access a wide range of high quality related programming including highlights, profiles, interviews and analysis.”

 

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For further information, please visit www.mtg.se or contact:

 

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEOTel:                               +46 (0) 8 562 000 50 

Investor & Analyst Enquiries:Matthew HooperTel:       +44 (0) 7768 440 414Email:   investor.relations@mtg.se 

Media Enquiries:Bert Willborg                 +44 (0) 791 2280 850Email:                           bert.willborg@mtg.se     

Modern Times Group is a leading international entertainment broadcasting group with the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting is the leading free-TV and pay-TV operator in Scandinavia and the Baltics, and has broadcasting operations in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Russia, Ukraine and Ghana. Viasat’s free-TV and pay-TV channels and pay-TV platforms attract a total of 125 million viewers in 31 countries. MTG is also the major shareholder in Russia’s largest independent television broadcaster (CTC Media – Nasdaq: CTCM), and the number one commercial radio operator and internet retailer of entertainment products in the Nordic region.

Modern Times Group MTG AB class A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm's Large Cap market (‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’). 

The information in this announcement is that which Modern Times Group MTG AB is required to disclose under the Securities Markets Act. This information was released for publication at 08.00 CET on 1 July 2010.

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