Russia’s Gazprom-Media had an operating profit of R6.9 billion (€80.5 million) in the first nine months of this year.
According to the company, this was four times the amount in the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, its net profit of R5.3 billion contrasted with a loss of R120 million between January-September 2020.
Consolidated revenues of the media business segment grew by 29% and reached R84.2 billion due to an increase in advertising revenues of Gazprom-Media holding and revenues from the sale of rights to audio-video reproduction.
Ad revenues increased by 30% and amounted to R61.4 billion. At the same time, according to AKAR, the Russian advertising market grew by 25% in the first nine months of 2021.
The company notes that on air TV channels, Red Media thematic channels and GPM Match sports channels made a significant contribution to the growth of ad revenues in the media business segment. At the same time, the increase in ad revenues is beginning to be positively influenced by the growth of revenues from the sale of advertising in the digital environment, which increased 2.5 times compared to 2020.
In addition, the growth in ad revenue was due to the recovery of business activity in the ad market, the return of sports events (European Football Championship, Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo), which were postponed or absent in 2020 due to the pandemic. The successful start of premieres and projects of the new TV season on the holding’s TV channels at the end of the third quarter also had a positive effect on the growth of ad revenues.
Gazprom-Media also notes that revenues from the sale of rights to audio-video reproduction increased by 35% and reached R12.9 billion.
