Viasat Broadcasting comprises all of the Group’s TV broadcasting assets – the Viasat DTH satellite platform, with more than one million subscribers in eight countries, in the Nordic and Baltic regions and in Ukraine; Viasat’s 28 free-TV channels in Scandinavia, the Baltics, Hungary, Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Ghana; Viasat’s 28 own-branded pay-TV channels, which are distributed on the Viasat platform and third party networks in 27 Nordic, Baltic and Central and Eastern European countries as well in the United States; and Viasat’s 39.4% equity participation in Russia’s largest independently owned, publicly listed TV broadcaster – CTC Media with its three free-TV networks.
Since January 2008 MTG has added 15 more own TV channels to its portfolio; 10 are new pay-TV channels, 5 are free-TV channels. The satellite TV platform has been extended to Ukraine, the free-TV operations to Ghana in Africa, and the pay TV channel business to the United States.
Viasat Broadcasting generated 18% net sales growth in 2008. The Group’s four core Nordic and Emerging Markets broadcasting businesses generated double-digit sales growth and market share gains in 2008. The underlying growth levels generally declined during the second half of the year, which reflected the increasingly challenging operating environment and the comparison with strong prior year numbers. Operating profits excluding associated company income were up 24% for the full year, with an increased operating margin of 19% (18%).