MTV Russia axed
December 11, 2012
MTV Russia will go off the air in June 2013 and will be replaced with another entertainment channel, Pyatnitsa, aimed at broader audiences.
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Russian newspaper Vedomosti has quoted ad agency employees as saying that they recently attended presentations of Pyatnitsa, organised by Profmedia, which has owned the Russian license for the brand MTV since 2007. According to the report, as of June 1, 2013, Pyatnitsa will be launched on the frequency currently occupied by MTV Russia, targeting the 14-44 age group as opposed to MTV Russia’s 14-34 target demo.
Launched in 1998 by Boris Zosimov, who sold the channel to Viacom in 2002, MTV Russia was one of the most popular entertainment TV channels in the country throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. But over the last few years, popularity of MTV Russia has been declining, with its audience share falling to 1.6 per cent in 2011 from 2.2 per cent the year before.