Channel One sold Dom Kino, Vremya and Beaver
Channel One's thematic projects for cable networks have changed owners. The channels "Dom Kino", "Telecafe", "Victory" on "market conditions" were acquired by the structure,
Essence of the deal
Ten channels owned by JSC Channel One. World Wide Web” and broadcasting in cable networks under the brand “Digital Telefamily”, changed the owner - a structure associated with the operator “Tricolor” became the new owner. The acquired channels, as well as Tricolor itself, are now part of one media holding. This was reported to RBC by several sources in the media market.
The actual buyer of the business, according to RBC interlocutors, was UltraRu JSC, registered in the Kaliningrad region, whose beneficiaries were not disclosed.
The press service of Tricolor confirmed the fact of the transaction, noting that it took place "on market conditions." The company does not disclose the specific parameters and terms of the reorganization. In the press service of JSC "Channel One. The World Wide Web also confirmed that the package of TV channels of the Digital Television Family was transferred to a new media holding, but they did not voice the details.
The press service of Roskomnadzor confirmed that the department received a statement about the change of the founder of the media owned by JSC Channel One. World Wide Web”, changes will be made to the register of registered media.
Deal object
As a project of thematic channels for cable networks, "Digital TV Family" dates back to the mid-2000s. If initially, back in the 1990s, the only task of the company - the owner of the "Digital TV Family" was to distribute the signal of "Channel One" outside of RUSSIA, then in 2006 the first project for the Russian audience appeared - the children's channel "Telenyanya" (later it was converted to "Carousel"). Then, in 2008, the Telecafe culinary channel appeared. Now the "Digital TV Family" has ten channels, including "Time", "Music of the First", "Oh!", "Beaver".
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The most popular project of the Digital TV Family is Cinema House. The broadcaster specializes in showing domestic films, its library, according to its own information, has more than 3.5 thousand hours of content. In the top 30 federal channels, according to measurements by Mediascope in large cities of Russia, in January-April 2022, it ranked 18th among all viewers over four years old. The average daily share of Dom Kino for the first four months was 1.1%, which means that, on average, just over 1% of all those who turned on the TV chose this channel every day. Its competitor, the Mosfilm channel, had almost the same figure. Golden Collection, which is being developed by the joint venture of Rostelecom and the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company. For comparison:
For other projects of the “digital family”, the average daily share does not exceed 1%.
In 2021, revenue under RAS of JSC Channel One. World Wide Web, which manages the Digital Telefamily, exceeded 4.9 billion rubles, profit from core activities reached almost 690 million rubles, net profit - 267 million rubles. Accounts payable as of December 31, 2021 amounted to RUB 248 million.
Parties to the transaction
Salesman
In 2021, Channel One went through, as formulated by the Ministry of Digital Development, a “financial recovery” procedure - as a result of additional capitalization, the state’s share in Channel One JSC decreased from 51 to 34.23% (at the same time, the state received a “golden share”). VTB became the new shareholder of the broadcaster, having received 32.89%. The share of the National Media Group decreased from 29% to 19.46%, SOGAZ - from 20% to 13.42%. As part of the additional capitalization, VTB evaluated Channel One, it was not reported.
The revenue of Channel One JSC according to RAS in 2021 reached almost 28 billion rubles, the loss from core activities amounted to 1.7 billion rubles, but thanks to “other income”, which includes state support, the broadcaster recorded 581 million rubles. net profit. The accounts payable of Channel One, which was recapitalized, fell sharply last year: if on December 31, 2020 it reached 21.9 billion rubles, then on December 31, 2021 - 7.5 billion rubles.
Experts have recorded a decrease in Russians' confidence in television Society
The federal budget for 2022 includes 6 billion rubles. subsidies for Channel One JSC for the production and purchase of content. In addition, six broadcasters, including Perviy, should receive together almost 8 billion rubles. to distribute its signal in small towns and villages.
Customer
Tricolor is the largest pay TV operator in terms of the number of subscribers at the end of 2021, TMT Consulting indicates in its report. Analysts estimate Tricolor's subscriber base at the end of last year at 12.2 million households, which corresponds to 26% of the entire pay TV market. The same numbers are called by Tricolor itself. The closest competitor, Rostelecom, has 10.8 million subscribers, or 23%.
In terms of revenue, Tricolor is inferior to Rostelecom - 16% against 37% of the total market in monetary terms, TMT Consulting indicates. This corresponds to 17.1 billion and 39.6 billion rubles.
Revenue according to RAS of the main legal entity of Tricolor, NJSC National Satellite Company, in 2021 reached almost 16.5 billion rubles, profit from core activities - 2.3 billion rubles, net profit - 1.9 billion rubles. Accounts payable as of December 31, 2021 — 5.6 billion rubles.
In addition to content distribution, Tricolor itself is also engaged in the production of thematic channels - this is done by a special company, First TVCh. Among his projects are "Our Film Screening", "Blockbuster", "About Love", "Our Siberia".
Officially, the owners of Tricolor have never been disclosed, but RBC sources have previously repeatedly named Andrei Tkachenko, whose main business is GS Group, a manufacturer of digital and Internet set-top boxes for receiving a TV signal, as the main beneficiary. The fact that Tkachenko is one of the owners of Tricolor was also revealed from the trial initiated by his ex-wife. In 2019, Irina Tkachenko filed two lawsuits against her ex-husband with the Arbitration COURT of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. According to her version, Andrey Tkachenko, in order not to share the Tricolor TV business with his ex-wife during the divorce proceedings, reduced his shares in companies in favor of third parties. Irina Tkachenko lost all legal disputes.
The HEAD of the information and analytical agency TelecomDaily, Denis Kuskov, in a conversation with RBC, drew attention to the fact that the TV channels included in the deal are focused on a regional audience that lacks entertainment content. Tricolor understands that now, due to the departure of a number of foreign channels that are not ready to work in Russia, it is necessary to increase Russian content. If they promote these channels, their audience will only increase,” says Kuskov.
What happens to the channels
Channel One, along with Rossiya 1 and NTV, came under US sanctions on May 8 . The US Treasury explained the restrictions by saying that the channels "belong to the Russian government, are controlled by it, or directly or indirectly carry out activities in its favor." For broadcasters, in particular, it is forbidden to supply equipment and computer programs, and American companies from advertising on these channels.
The deal takes place against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the advertising market, provoked by the refusal of many multinational companies from any marketing activity in Russia or even their withdrawal from the local market. Only in the first half of April, the number of brands advertised on TV decreased by 1.8 times - from 684 to 381, the Rodnaya Speech group calculated. A drop in advertising revenues of "only" 25-30% in the second quarter will be a success for TV channels, said Sergey Beloglazov, chief operating officer of Rodnaya Speech.
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