The Russian business of Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is now under new ownership and thereby complying with rules limiting levels of foreign investment that came into effect at the beginning of this year.
Kommersant reports that the sale of 80% of the company to Vladimir Khanumyan, a former senior manger of Gazprom Media and the National Media Group (NMG), as well as a long term associate of Peter Hervey, a minority shareholder in the business, was recently closed.
Khanumyan discussed by the possibility of buying SPT’s business with NMG last year but the latter was not interested in the idea. However, NMG has actively pursued other acquisitions and entered into a partnership with Discovery.
SPT currently distributes three cable channels in Russia, namely Sony Entertainment Television, Sony Turbo and Sony Sci-Fi. However, none of them, according to TNS Russia, are in the top 20 cable and DTH services in terms of audience share.