OREANDA-NEWS. April 15, 2010. TNS-Russia has released its weekly audience share estimates in the 4+ demographic for the week of 29 March-4 April for the top 20 Russian FTA broadcasters, reported the press-centre of VTB Capital.

The combined CTC Media audience share (including CTC, Domashny, DTV) averaged 12.8%, up from the 12.1% in January-March 2009.

We note that upto 50% of all GRPs sold are generated in prime-time (19:00-23:00) and in the case of CTC Media the prime-time is supported by quality domestic programming (made both in-house and externally). The most highly rated CTC programmes YTD are: in-house made sitcom Daddy’s Girls (YTD 10.9%), in-house made series Margosha (YTD 12.7%) and sitcom The Voronins (YTD 12.2%).

CTC Media continues to launch new domestic programming:

On CTC: i) a new family show called This is My Kid! produced by Russian Dixi TV: four families with a 5-7 year-old children demonstrate how well they know their child (to be launched shortly); ii) a new documentary made in-house by SOHO Media: The History of Russian Show Business (launched late April); iii) a new format comedy show Thank God You’ve Come! to be launched tomorrow; and iv) an intellectual TV-game, Brain Ring, to be filmed in June.

On Domashny: the premiere of Russian psychological drama series Confidence Service to be launched next week and aired daily at 12.00.

On DTV: premier of Russian detective series Invisibles to be aired Mondays-Thursdays at 22:00.

Despite all the premieres, management expects only a modest YoY increase in content costs as the pricing for the purchased content remains stable YoY. We are reiterating our bullish view on CTC Media (Buy, 12-month Target Price of USD 28), which currently trades at 9.5x on 2010F EBITDA (a single-digit discount to Eastern European and developed market peers).