MTG financial results for the second quarter and six months ended 30 June 2008

Modern Times Group MTG AB (The OMX Nordic Exchange Large Cap market: MTGA, MTGB) today announced its financial results for the second quarter and six months ended 30 June 2008.

Pay-TV Nordic

Viasat Broadcasting’s pay-TV operations in the Nordic region comprise the Viasat DTH satellite broadcasting platform and 19 Viasat pay-TV channels. The business reported 13% year on year sales growth in the second quarter and 12% growth for the year to date, as annualised average revenue per premium subscriber (ARPU) continued to rise. Premium ARPU increased by 11% year on year in the second quarter from SEK 3,502 to SEK 3,900, and was up from SEK 3,790 in the first quarter of 2008, which reflected the price increases introduced during the Fall; the growing proportion of multi-room subscribers; the maturing of subscribers into higher ARPU contract periods; and the succesful up-seling of subscribers to higher priced packages.

                                 June   March    June
(000's)                          2008    2008    2007
                                 ----   -----    ----
Premium subscribers               739     752     746 
 -of which, DTH satellite         688     703     709 
 -of which, IPTV                   51      50      37 

Basic DTH satellite subscribers    82      83      95

The development of the Viasat premium subscriber base reflected a short term increase in churn in Norway as al the major channels became available on both satellite pay-TV platforms for the first time at the end of February 2008. The development of the IPTV subscriber base is yet to reflect the Swedish Telia IPTV deal, which was only signed at the end of May. The number of basic subscribers stabilised folowing the agreements signed during the Spring to make al the major channels available on al platforms and the introduction of Viasat’s tiered packaging and pricing model in the Fal of 2007.

The number of subscribers with ViasatPlus Personal Video Recorders increased from 82,000 at the end of the first quarter to 95,000 at the end of the second quarter, and represented 14% of the premium DTH subscriber base at the end of the period. The number of multi-room subscriptions similarly increased from 136,000 to 151,000 in the second quarter, to represent 20% of the DTH subscriber base.

Pay-TV Emerging Markets

Viasat’s Emerging Markets pay-TV operations comprise the DTH satellite platform in the Baltics, the eight Viasat channels that are distributed through third party cable and satellite networks to subscribers in twenty countries acros the region, and the Viasat joint venture DTH satellite platform in Ukraine.

                                            June    March     June
(000's)                                     2008     2008     2007
                                          ------   ------   ------
Baltic DTH satellite premium subscribers     179      175      117 
Mini-pay TV subscriptions                 30,202   27,638   23,060

Viasat’s Baltic DTH satellite pay-TV platform added a total of 62,000 premium subscribers year on year and 4,000 premium subscribers in the second quarter of 2008. The wholesale mini-pay business added another 2.6 million subscriptions during the quarter, and the number of subscriptions increased by 31% year on year to reach the 30 million mark. Advertising sales were also launched on TV1000 East and Viasat History in Russia during the quarter.

The Viasat Ukraine DTH satellite platform was launched on 21 April and is the first licensed digital premium satellite pay-TV operator in Ukraine. MTG has reported its share of the Viasat Ukraine satellite pay-TV platform’s operating results on a 50:50 joint venture basis with efect from 1 March 2008. The business is at an early stage of development and losses amounted to SEK 2 million in the quarter and SEK 4 million for the year to date.

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