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Company Interview Excerpt
HANS-HOLGER ALBRECHT - MODERN TIMES GROUP MTG AB (MTGNY) & (MTGB.ST)


Full article published: 12/20/2001


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TWST: Could we begin with an historical sketch of the company and then just bring us up to date?
Mr. Albrecht: Modern Times Group was founded a little more than ten years ago as the first company commercially broadcasting in Scandinavia. At that time commercial broadcasting was not allowed in this market so we came out of London with an ITC license and based on this first step we developed various business areas, of which broadcasting was the biggest part. Also, throughout Europe we have assets in radio, home shopping, production facilities, newspapers and some magazines and a company called SDI, which is a subtitling and dubbing company operating worldwide. If you look to the core business it is broadcasting that is the largest part. We are both the number one free and pay TV operator in Northern Europe. Also, we are the third largest pay TV operator on the satellite side in Europe after Sky. When it comes to subtitling and dubbing we have a global market leading position and have more than 60% of the worldwide market share of DVD subtitling. Also, with our production company, especially on the reality TV format, we produce programming in more than 30 countries. So, the fundamental starting point for us was Northern Europe and during the last three years we migrated our business into Europe and internationally. Nowadays, you can see TV for example in the Baltic states, Hungary and Russia and our company SDI is in Asia, Europe and the U.S as is our production company. So, we have become much more of an international group.

TWST: In terms of broadcasting, what kind of growth potential do you see in that division?
Mr. Albrecht: In the group we have a strong growth sector, which is pay TV, which has been growing year on year, 40% for us. Satellite pay TV only has a 15% market share. In Scandinavia there is still 35% of the market that is just analog terrestrial. So, there the market potential is twice as big as it is today so there are some growth cycles to be seen there. Then we have companies like Strix and SDI, which are growing 30-40% every year as well. We believe that the average revenue per Pay-TV subscriber will increase substantially as a result of active services like pay-per-view, email and betting and gambling through your remote control. So, that is the strong growth potential I can see for the next 24 to 36 months. I believe advertising will grow as well during the coming year, not double-digit growth any more that is for sure, but Scandinavia is still a very young advertising market. Also, for the ongoing years we have our new markets in the Baltic, Hungary and Russia. The Baltics have been growing this year by over 15% and the Russian market is growing by 25% this year, so there are enough individual operations to have good strong growth potential.

 

Tickers included in this excerpt: MTGB.ST, MTGNY

 

For more information call (212) 952 7433. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.