OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2012. CTC Media, Inc. (“CTC Media” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, announces that the launch of its new prime time sitcom The Eighties (Vos’midesiatye) has resulted in the project becoming a prime time hit after the first season of the show was aired on the CTC channel and watched by a record number of viewers, reported the press-centre of CTC Media.

The first season of the original Russian TV series The Eighties was first aired on the CTC channel on January 30, 2012, and it has become the channel’s most successful series premier for the past three years.

The Russian “All 6-54” audience share of the show’s first episode amounted to 20.0%, while the “All 14-44” audience share amounted to 23.8%. The equivalent figures for Moscow were 19.0% and 23.5% respectively. As a result, the CTC channel became the leader in these audience categories both in the capital and in Russia as a whole.

The first season of The Eighties comprised of 12 episodes, which drew an average audience share in Russia of 16.9% in the 6-54 age category and 20.7% in the 14-44 age category. These figures were slightly lower in Moscow, amounting to 15.9% and 19.0% respectively, however, this did not prevent the season from becoming the leader in the “14-44” target audience category in Moscow and throughout the rest of the country.

Since the beginning of 2012, CTC’s successful new projects, which also includes Doctor Zaytseva’s Diary, have helped the channel climb from fourth to second place in the “All 6-54” audience category in the Russian prime time slot compared to the same period last year.

Viacheslav Murugov, Chief Content Officer of CTC Media, Head of the CTC Channel: “CTC got off to a good start in 2012, reversing the downward trend of the second half of last year. Both of the channel’s season premiers Doctor Zaytseva’s Diary and The Eighties exceeded even the most optimistic expectations, instantly becoming popular and winning the affection of our viewers. We are particularly pleased with the success of The Eighties, which is based on CTC Media’s own original idea and conjures up memories the youth of my generation. We are already in talks over the development of the follow-up seasons of these series, which are likely to be televised this autumn. In the meantime, the spring promises to bring other new and exciting projects. We are confident that we have all we need not only to maintain January’s success, but also build on that throughout this year.”

*All audience share information is provided by TNS Russia.