A new TV media group named YUTV has been formed in Russia.
According to AKTR and ComNews, it brings together the assets formerly held by the Media-1 and AF Media Holding groups, owned by Alisher Usmanov and Ivan Tavrin respectively.
While Media-1 includes 33 regional FTA stations, AF Media Holdings counts the music channel (75%) and national station 7TV (100%) among its assets. YUTV will be jointly owned and managed by its two founder companies.
Usmanov and Tavrin decided to merge the two companies following a decision by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) in February 2009 to scupper a deal between Media-1 and Walt Disney.
