MTG: Viasat Launches Subscription Online Video on Demand Service

STOCKHOLM--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News:

Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’)(STO:MTGA)(STO:MTGB), the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that Viasat Broadcasting will launch a subscription ‘video-on-demand’ service on its Viasat OnDemand internet portal in Sweden, Denmark and Norway on 2 February. The subscription service will make an unrivalled range of pay-TV content available over the internet, including live sports events, hundreds of episodes of hit TV series, and access to 200 feature films at any given time.

The content, which comes from major US studios, leading TV channels and premium sports rights holders, is being made available to subscribers in a variety of thematic packages, ranging in price from SEK 49 per month to SEK 199 per month for the Total package. The Entertainment package offers around-the-clock, on-demand access to great drama, comedy and sci-fi TV series such as Two and a Half Men, Friends, ER, Supernatural and Smallville, whilst the Documentary package carries award-winning documentaries from leading film makers. The Sports package includes live coverage of UEFA Champions League football, ATP and Davis Cup tennis, the NHL and HockeyAllsvenskan ice hockey leagues, and motor racing’s Formula One World Championship and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The Movie package features current worldwide blockbusters such as Hancock, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan and The Kite Runner, as well as modern classics such as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ocean’s Eleven and Kill Bill. The Total package provides unlimited access to all of the genre packages, as well as full parental control functions for the protection of younger viewers.

The new subscription service will further consolidate ViasatOnDemand’s position as the leading provider of online TV content in Scandinavia. The platform also includes the catch-up TV services for Viasat’s own free-TV channels and leading third party free-TV channels, and already enables viewers to pay-per-event for a wide range of high profile live and recorded sports events, or pay-per-day for access to an extensive list of current and library movie titles.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO of MTG, commented: “This subscription service is the latest step in the ongoing development of our market leading online content offering. It is in line with our commitment to make free and paid-for entertainment available to viewers on a flexible ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis on multiple distribution platforms. As on other platforms, we have structured our online and on-demand TV offering into thematic packages in order to provide subscribers with even greater choice about what they watch.”

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Modern Times Group is a leading international entertainment broadcasting group with the second largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting is the largest free-TV and satellite premium pay-TV operator in Scandinavia and the Baltics, and also operates free-TV channels in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia Bulgaria, Macedonia and Ghana. MTG’s TV assets are broadcast in a total of 30 countries and have 125 million viewers. MTG is also the major shareholder in Russia’s largest independent television broadcaster (CTC Media - Nasdaq: CTCM), and the number one commercial radio operator in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

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 Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. It was released for publication at 08.00 CET on 8 February 2009.

For further information, please visit www.mtg.se

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