CTC Media appoints new head of Peretz Channel

Russia’s CTC Media has appointed the chief executive of U TV, Ruben Oganesyan, as the head of its Peretz Channel.

Oganesyan will join Peretz on December 11, replacing current channel head Dmitry Troitsky. From January 1 will also take on the role of deputy CEO for strategic marketing of CTC Media.

Here he will be in charge of broadcast and promotional marketing, as well as ad campaigns for all CTC Media’s channels.

The appointment comes just days after CTC named Elmira Makhmutova as the new head of the CTC Channel, replacing Viacheslav Murugov.

Oganesyan joined UTH Russia-owned U TV in 2013, and has since repositioned the channel as a girl-focused network. Before this he was director of the on–air promotion department of TNT Channel from 2007 to 2013.

His appointment at Peretz comes less than a month after CTC Media said it was evaluating a “potential transformation” of its Peretz network, making it a “more cutting edge and dynamic channel, with a focus on edgy action content.”

Peretz, which has traditionally focused on humour and reality TV, saw its target audience share fall year-on-year from 2.3% to 2.1% in the third quarter of this year. CTC attributed this to increased competition from channels that broadcast political news on the situation in Ukraine, audience fragmentation and the “relative underperformance of certain programming.”

Commenting on Oganesyan’s appointment, CTC Media’s CEO Yuliana Slashcheva said: “I believe that Ruben will help Peretz to get to a new level, and being deputy CEO for strategic marketing will be able to maintain the highest standards of CTC Media and give new and outrageous ideas to the marketing department.”