CTC MEDIA CAPITAL MARKETS DAY – LONDON. Russia’s CTC Media is looking to expand its activities into Ukraine and Belarus. At the same time, its main channel CTC is changing its target audience to viewers aged 14-44 in order to make it more appealing to advertisers.
Commenting on CTC Media’s plans, CEO Anton Kudryashov said that Ukraine has a promising TV ad market, which though only 7-8% of Russia’s in terms of size was – at $374 million (€264 million) – the second largest in the CIS in 2010 and is expected to grow by 30% this year.
The ad market in Belarus is meanwhile projected to double from $64 million in 2010 during the next five years.
According to Kudryashov, CTC Media is “carefully considering” entering the two markets but will only do so at the right price.
Furthermore, it will probably buy smaller players as large ones are unlikely to be put on the market.
The company’s international channel CTC International is meanwhile likely to become available in Canada this year and Australia and New Zealand in 2012.
CTC’s target audience is being changed as it has until now had a large section of its viewership – children – that is hard to monetise.
