OREANDA-NEWS. On 27 February 2009 CTC Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, announced the appointment of Vyacheslav Murugov as Acting General Director of DTV Group, which is wholly owned by CTC Media, Inc. Mr. Murugov will continue as General Director of the CTC channel and as CTC Media’s Chief Content Officer. Vladimir Kartashkov, who has served as General Director of DTV Group since May 2008, is leaving the company.

Vyacheslav Murugov will be responsible for the overall activities of DTV Group, including content creation and acquisition, strategic planning and marketing. Mr. Murugov will be supported by Ilya Ognev, DTV Group’s Executive Producer, who is responsible for content production.

Commenting on his appointment, Vyacheslav Murugov said, “I am honored to head DTV, a channel with a great potential for further growth. I would like to thank Vladimir Kartashkov, who has now decided to focus on media production ventures, for his contribution to DTV’s development and wish him continued success in the future.”

Anton Kudryashov, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “Vyacheslav has established a successful track record at CTC Media and built on his reputation as a highly professional and gifted manager. He has 13 years of media experience as a screenplay writer, producer and originator of many popular series and programs. This expertise and industry knowledge will be of great value to DTV and will facilitate strengthening the channel’s market position.”

DTV Group operates the DTV Russian national television network, which had an average audience share in its target demographic of 1.8% in 2008.

Vyacheslav Murugov was born on January 26, 1969 in Novosibirsk, Russia. He has served as Chief Content Officer of CTC Media and General Director of CTC channel since 2008. Prior to that, he served as CTC channel Executive Producer since 2007 and as CTC channel Producer since 2005. Mr. Murugov was Producer at REN TV between 2001 and 2005. He is co-founder, a member of the Board of Directors, and Creative Director of the LEAN-M production centre. From 1999 to 2001, he served as Producer at Yugra TV Company. 

Mr. Murugov graduated from the Tver (Kalinin) Suvorov Military School in 1986 and from the Penza Artillery Engineering College in 1991. He is also a graduate of the TV journalism Department of Moscow State University.

Vyacheslav Murugov is the originator and producer of a number of TV projects, including “Soldiers”, “Cadets”, “Ranetki”, “Daddy’s Girls”, “6 Frames” and “Thank God You Have Come!”. He is also a Member of the Russian Television Academy.