Russia’s Gazprom Media has announced that it will launch nine sports channels on January 25.
At the same time, it has also signed a cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Media Group (SMG).
The nine channels are Our Football, “Match! Our Sport , Match! Arena , Match! Game, Match! Fighter, Match! Planet, Match! Football 1, Match! Football 2 and Match! Football 3. Most will be offered to viewers in HD.
Gazprom Media will also jointly produce the channels KHL, KHL TV and Equestrian World.
Meanwhile, the agreement with the SMG covers the coproduction of fims and TV shows, the sharing of libraries and coopertion in the development and distribution of cinema, TV and digital content. According to Dmitry Chernyshenko, the DG of Gazprom Media, the Russian company has already formed an offer of 300 feature films for the first phase of the cooperation with the SMG.
SMG is one of the leading media groups in China and its assets include 15 main TV channels and 15 digital pay-TV channels.
Significantly, the agreement is not the first one between Gazprom Media and Chinese companies.
Last October, Central Partnership, one of its subsidiaries, signed a deal with China Film Group, China’s largest film distribution company.
