MTG Acquires Exclusive Swedish Broadcasting Rights to Olympic Games

Regulatory News:

Modern Times Group MTG AB (publ.) (‘MTG’ or ‘the Group’) , the international entertainment broadcasting group, today announced that MTG has acquired the exclusive broadcasting rights in Sweden for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014, and the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016. The rights include, but are not limited to, broadcast coverage on free-TV, pay-TV, mobile and the internet.

The 2014 Olympic Winter Games will take place in Sochi (Southern Russia on the Black Sea) between 7 – 23 February at newly constructed facilities. The 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) between 5 – 21 August in four separate locations in the city, including well-known venues such as Copacabana and Maracana.

A minimum of 100 hours of coverage from the Winter Games, and 200 hours from the Summer Games, will be broadcast on the Group’s Swedish free-TV channels. MTG will use its portfolio of complementary and thematic pay-TV sports channels, which currently comprise Viasat Sport, Viasat Fotboll, Viasat Fotboll HD, Viasat Premier League HD, Viasat Golf and Viasat Hockey to supply any further coverage. Olympic themed programming featuring archive footage will be included as part of regularly scheduled highlights programmes and features to promote the Games and the live broadcasts.

Coverage of Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 will also be made available via mobile phones and the internet by Viaplay, which is the Group’s multi-screen internet-based video streaming service. Viaplay provides live coverage of premium sports events to personal computers, tablets, smart phones and internet-connected TV’s.

MTG has also secured the non-exclusive Swedish radio broadcasting rights to coverage of both Olympic Games.

The sale of the broadcasting rights has been carried out by the leading sports marketing agency, SPORTFIVE International. The agency acquired the broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games from the International Olympic Committee.

Hans-Holger Albrecht, President and CEO of MTG, commented: "It is a major milestone for us as a Group to secure the rights to broadcast coverage of the original and most popular sports event in the world. Our extensive portfolio of free and pay-TV channels, and the availability of our content through so many different platforms in Sweden, enables us to make full use of such properties. MTG is the leading sports content distributor in Sweden, and we produce and broadcast over 5,000 hours of live sports annually. This acquisition reflects our strategic focus on securing premium sports content and making it available to viewers across all of our channels and platforms.”

Commenting on the agreement, Vincent Tong Cuong, CEO of SPORTFIVE International, said: "We are delighted to broker this deal with MTG in Sweden, and are confident that MTG will provide excellent and extensive coverage for fans throughout Sweden. SPORTFIVE is relishing the privilege of having acquired such prestigious media rights from the International Olympic Committee."

Modern Times Group is an international entertainment broadcasting group with the largest geographical broadcast footprint in Europe. MTG's Viasat Broadcasting operates 28 free-TV channels in 11 countries and 38 pay-tv channels in 32 countries. The pay-tv channels are distributed on Viasat’s own satellite platforms in 9 countries, as well as on third party broadcast networks (including cable, satellite and IPTV) and over the open internet. These free-TV and pay-TV channels and pay-TV platforms attract a total of 125 million viewers in 33 countries. MTG is also the largest shareholder in Russia’s leading independent television broadcaster (CTC Media – Nasdaq: CTCM).

Modern Times Group is a growth company and generated SEK 13.1 billion of sales and SEK 2.4 billion of operating income in 2010. MTG’s Class A and B shares are listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm’s Large Cap index under the symbols ‘MTGA’ and ‘MTGB’.

The information in this announcement is that which Modern Times Group MTG AB is required to disclose under the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. It was released for publication at 14.00 CET on 17 June 2011.

For further information, please visit www.mtg.se

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