Sweden’s Modern Times Group (MTG) has acquired a 50% stake in Balkan Media Group Limited (BMGL) from London-based Apace Media for €11.6 million. BMGL has a number of broadcast interests in Bulgaria including Diema Vision (100%) and Television MM (66%), which together operate a total of six TV channels. Known as Diema Plus, Diema 2, Diema Extra, Alexandra TV (Diema Vision) and MMTV and M2 (Television MM), they are distributed by nearly 400 cable networks and reach almost 70% of the country’s 3.1 million TV households. Outside Bulgaria, BMGL has a stake in TV Era, an Albanian language station based in Macedonia. Apace Media established a presence in Bulgaria in 2005 by acquiring stakes in Television MM and Diema Vision. MTG has meanwhile been rapidly expanding its interests in Central and Eastern Europe beyond the Baltic Republics, Russia and Hungary. In little over a year it has bought into Prima TV (Czech Republic), Prva TV (Slovenia) and now BMGL. (CD)
great stuff