National Media Group (NMG) is a media conglomerate with shares in a vast array of media outlets although it doesn’t own a majority stake in all of them (some of these media are studied separately in this report according to their largest shareholder). NMG owns a majority stake in Channel 5 and REN TV as well as nearly 20% in Channel One (analyzed separately).
NMG also has a majority stake in CTC Media, which runs several television channels. In 2016, NMG also became an owner in Viasat, a large provider of pay television channels. The deal was carried out via a newly set up company, Media Alliance, created jointly with Discovery Networks, which was also used to acquire the local operation of more than 10 television channels from the U.S. television broadcast company (Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, CNN, Eurosport were among them). The deal was needed because of legislation adopted in 2014 in Russia that doesn’t allow foreigners to own more than 20% in media companies that operate in the Russian market, hence foreign companies need a local partner if they want to do business.
NMG is present as well in the print media, running Izvestia, a major Russian newspaper. The company has built a large news production outlet around Izvestia, known as Izvestia MIC, which operates the portal Iz.ru, the Izvestia television channel, the newspaper Izvestia and the news operations of NMG’s television channels (REN TV, Channel 5 and 78 TV). The same center runs Business Petersburg, too.
NMG also runs a variety of companies in many other areas including technology, sales houses and filmmaking.
Media assets
Television: Channel 5, REN TV; CTC Media- CTC, Domashniy, Che TV, CTC Love, 3One; 78 Channel; Viasat
Publishing: Izvestia, Business Petersburg, Metro Petersburg, Sport-Express
State Media Matrix Typology: Captured Public/State-Managed (CaPu)
Ownership and governance
NMG is co-owned by several state-controlled media companies, including Rossiya Bank, Surgutneftegas, SOGAZ and Gazprom Media. The largest influence in the group is exerted by Yury Kovalchuk, a Russian financier who is known as Putin’s personal banker. Kovalchuk was put on the list of individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2014 following the Crimean crisis.
Source of funding and budget
NMG funds its operations mostly through advertising sales and commercialization of content (subscriptions). No evidence of state funding being channeled to the media run by NMG has been identified. According to a report from the Media and Journalism Research Center, NMG in 2021 had revenues of RUB 47.2bn (US$ 665m).
Editorial independence
The media run by the NMG are known to be supportive of the Kremlin, a result of the influence that Kovalchuk exerts in the company. Various countries in Europe at some point in time banned television channels owned by NMG because they were found to be just propaganda platforms for the Kremlin with a mission to destabilize local societies.
No domestic statute and no independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the editorial independence of the NMG’s media outlets have been identified.
October 2023