MTG takes control of Ukrainian DTH

Swedish media company the Modern Times Group (MTG) has acquired an additional 35% stake in Viastrong, which operates the Viasat Ukraine DTH platform.

Viastrong operates the Ukrainian pay-TV platform through its subsidiary Vision TV. MTG bought the additional interest in Viastrong, which takes its overall stake to 85%, for an undisclosed sum from Strong Media.

The two companies launched the joint venture pay-TV company in Ukraine in September 2007 and the service rolled out in April 2008. MTG said it will consolidate Viasat Ukraine results into own and report them under the pay TV and emerging markets segment of Viasat’s results. MTG owns and operates the Viasat pay-TV services throughout Scandinavia and the Baltics. The latest figures for combined pay-TV customers in Ukraine and the Baltics revealed Viasat had 216,000 premium customers.