OREANDA-NEWS. July 15, 2011. CTC Media, Inc. (“CTC Media” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, announces that CTC Media’s Channel 31 in Kazakhstan has demonstrated a record audience share development both in the second quarter and first six months of 2011, reported the press-centre of CTC Media.

According to data from TNS Central Asia, Channel 31 had a 15.8% share of 6-54 year old viewers in the second quarter, and a 15.2% share of the target demographic in the first half of the year. These record results mark a significant improvement year-on-year in both periods (up from 12.2% in the second quarter of 2010 and 11.2% in the first six months of 2010), and Channel 31 has strengthened its position as the second most watched television channel in Kazakhstan. The channel has a national penetration of 82.9%, and the Kazakh TV advertising market is estimated to have amounted to US\\$115 million in 2010.

Anton Kudryashov, Chief Executive Officer of CTC Media, commented:“We are very pleased with the performance of Channel 31 this year. The channel’s audience share in the second quarter outperformed the already strong development in the first quarter of the year. This has allowed us to reach a record level of audience share in the first half of 2011, and we are convinced that it will contribute to a positive development of our market share and revenues in Kazakhstan going forward.”

“The unprecedented results reflect the performance of the strong management team headed by Marat Devlet-Kildeyev and the successful programming mix adapted to the demands of the Kazakh market. A lot has been done to cherry pick the right programming, to build relationships with major international studios and to develop local production, which provides the channel with highly rated projects, and we look forward to continuing to offer the Kazakh people the best TV entertainment available. This is the case when quantity turns into quality, which in future will enable us to extrapolate the innovative business practices established in Kazakhstan to the other segments of our business.”

Marat Devlet-Kildeyev, Head of the CIS Group of CTC Media, commented: “Our successful audience shares and position as the second most watched channel in Kazakhstan is a logical result of the restructuring implemented in 2009 and 2010, which set the stage for a stronger financial performance by the business. This has in turn enabled us to increase investments into content acquisition and production, and we have given our viewers the programming they are looking for, like Turkish series and internally produced Kazakh-language entertainment shows.”

“Our ambitious goals and sound strategy, combined with the coordinated performance by the team headed by Nurjan Mukhamedjanova,General Director of Channel 31, have all contributed to our success. While we are pleased with what we have achieved, we continue our intensive and focused work to develop the business even further. The new season of Channel 31 offers plenty of new surprises for our viewers, and we expect it to become one of the pillars of our performance going forward. We strive to not only make 2011 the best year ever in the history of Channel 31, but also to continue showing growth going forward.”

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About Channel 31
Channel 31 is headquartered in Almaty in Kazakhstan, and began broadcasting on April 12, 1992. From March 31, 2008, Channel 31 was re-launched in a new entertainment format. TV-radio company Channel 31 and CTC Media entered into an agreement and created a new company, “Channel 31 Group” in 2008. The programming schedules consist mainly of Turkish and Korean series, local production, Hollywood movies, local news programs and certain CTC shows.

For further information, please visit:www.31.kz