Russia’s AFK Sistema has changed the ownership structure of the DTH platform operated by MTS in order to comply with legislation limiting foreign participation in media companies.
According to Kommersant, Digital Broadcasting (DTV) is now majority (79.99%) owned by Sergey Shishkin, VP and head of complex corporate management at Sistema, with 20% being held by a daughter company of Sistema and the remainder by Ostankino.
DTV secured a licence to operate a satellite TV service from the ABS-2 satellite in 2014.
The service has made a slow start and as of Q2 this year had only 50,000 subscribers, giving it a 0.3% share of the Russian DTH market.