Russia's CTC-International to Broadcast in Thailand

ODESSA, UKRAINE -- Russia’s CTC Media has entered the South East Asian market as part of its expansion strategy.

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CTC has signed an agreement with Thai Media Export Co., LTD, under which its Russian-language channel CTC-International will be included in four major cable networks in Phuket, which cover around 90 percent of the households and hotels in the region. The agreement stipulates that CTC Media will receive an undisclosed fixed monthly payment from the Thai company.

“The next stage of our development will see the channel launched in popular destinations for Russian tourists, the first of which is Thailand,” Marat Devlet-Kildeyev, CTC Media’s Head of International Broadcasting, said in a statement. “We believe this sector has much potential and are currently looking into broadcasting in Turkey, United Arab Emirates and many other countries.”

Initially, CTC-International will be broadcasted only in Phuket, but the company plans to make the channel available in the country’s other regions, such as Bangkok and Pattaya as they contain a sizeable Russian population and have a developed tourism industry.

CTC Media, which operates the free-to-air television networks CTC, Domashny and Peretz in Russia and Channel 31 in Kazakhstan and a TV company in Moldova, estimates the potential audience size in Thailand at more than 550,000 Russian-speaking viewers annually, most of whom are tourists.

CTC-International is currently available in the United States, Israel, Germany, the Baltic States and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.