Gazprom Media bounces back in third quarter

Russia’s Gazprom Media bounced back from a COVID-19 induced slump in the third quarter, posting a 9% uplift in revenues to RUB22.6 billion (€248 million) on the back of a recovery in its advertising business.

The company saw its ad revenues grow by 5% to RUB16.6 billion, with growth recorded across both free-to-air and thematic channels at a time when the overall Russian TV advertising market declined by 3%, according to figures from local association AKAR.

Revenues from rights sales declined by 9% to RUB2.3 billion, blamed on the collapse in film distribution revenues and the postponement of major releases. The fall in movie distribution revenues was offset to some extent by an increase in income from distribution of pay channels from the Red Media portfolio and sports channels.

Gazprom Media posted an operating profit of RUB1.86 billion for the quarter against a loss of RUB695 million for the prior year period.

For the nine months to September, the group saw revenues decline by 3% to RUB65.3 billion as COVID-19 make its impact felt. Ad revenues dropped by 4%, seen by the company as a good result in the circumstances, while rights sales plummeted by 15%.

Gazprom Media posted a net loss of RUB120 million for the full nine month period.

Flagship channel NTV maintained a stable share of TV viewing of 10.1% in Q3, while TNT’s share grew by a point to 8.8% and TV3 remained about the same at 4.6%. Football channel Match TV saw its share more than double to 3%.