The first three months of 2015 brought to the Media holding of the Russian Gazprombank financial losses near four times more then in the previous year. The losses amounted to RUR1.72 billion, compared to RUR430 million in the past year.
The income of the Gazprom-Media Group decreased from RUR16.7 billion in the first quarter of the past year to RUR14.8 billion in this year (slump of 11.5%). The Media Holding closed the quarter with losses of nearly RUR600 million, meanwhile in the past year it showed a profit of RUR1.8 billion. This is evidenced by financial data.
The Gazprombank did not specify the reasons for such financial losses, focusing on general aggravation of economic climate in Russia, associated with international sanctions and depreciation of the national currency.
Financial losses in this economic sector are not indicative only to the Gazprombank’s media business. According to the Russian Association of Communication Agencies, the TV broadcasting market decreased by 22% (up to RUR30 billion), and the radio broadcasting market decreased by 25% (up to RUR2.5 billion). The total slump of the media market was 17% or RUR63.5 billion.
The Gazprom-Media company is one of the largest media assets in Russia. It owns TV channels like TNT, TV3, Pyatnitsa (Friday), NTV, such radio broadcasting resources as Like FM, Yumor FM, Energy, Autoradio, Relax FM. In addition, the Corporation owns 67% of the radio Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow), as well as printed editions like Tribuna (Tribune), 7 dney (7 days), Karavan istoriy (Caravan of stories). It has its own video resources (Rutube, Now.Ru), media production studios (Comedy Club Production, Central Partnership), and sales houses (Alcazar, Gazprom-Media Digital, Gazprom-Media).
We shall recall that Mediasat reported before about the deal between Gazprom-Media and the operator Maxim Telecom, which resulted in the appearance on the portal Vmet.ro of the legal content of video hosting Rutube.
