Gazprom Media

Gazprom-Media Holding is Russia’s largest media group, created in 1998 and operating television, radio, print, film production, cinema distribution, advertising and internet businesses. Alexander Zharov has been General Director since 24 March 2020. The holding’s current website reports more than 80 assets, comprising 38 television assets, four digital platforms, eight radio brands and ten print or online publications; the roster below is selected rather than complete.

Media assets

Federal television: NTV, TNT, TV-3, Friday!, TNT4, Match TV, Match! Strana, 2×2 and Saturday!

Thematic and pay television: thirty-one thematic channels operated by Red Media, NTV and Match, including Match Premier, Match Arena, Match Igra, Match Planeta, Match Futbol 1 to 3, Match Boets, KHL TV, the NTV thematic services and the Kino family of film channels

Distribution: NTV-Plus

Radio: Autoradio, Detskoe Radio, Comedy Radio, Like FM, Relax FM, Radio Romantika, Radio Energy and Humor FM

Principal digital services: Rutube, PREMIER and Yappy

Online radio: 101.ru

Publishing and online: the Seven Days publishing operation, including Seven Days, Story Caravan, 7Dney.ru, VokrugTV and SRSLY, and the Media Press publishing house

Portfolio changes. The holding acquired 51 per cent of Insight People on 16 November 2023. In 2026 it sold 100 per cent of Telebazis, principally a property and production-facilities company, transferring 5,600 square metres of production space to the Gorky Film Studio. GPM KIT assumed the functions of General Director at Central Partnership, whose existing management team remained in place.

Ownership and governance

Gazprom-Media is controlled through the state-controlled Gazprom corporate group.

On 29 December 2023 Gazprom Group consolidated a controlling shareholding in Gazprom-Media Holding, while Gazprombank remained a minority shareholder. The transaction was described as establishing vertically integrated management of Gazprom’s media assets.

Alexander Zharov has been General Director since 24 March 2020, having previously headed Roskomnadzor and served as deputy communications minister. His term was renewed for a further three-year cycle beginning on 24 March 2026. He succeeded Dmitry Chernyshenko, who led the holding from 2015 to 2020 before becoming a deputy prime minister.

The holding’s Board of Directors is chaired by Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee. State Media Monitor identified no independent directors charged with protecting editorial autonomy, no protected management-appointment procedure and no external editorial-oversight mechanism.

The company transferred its registered office from Moscow to St Petersburg in August 2024, and its current corporate address is 2A Ostrovsky Square. That was a change in the holding company’s registration and should not be taken to mean that every subsidiary or newsroom relocated.

Source of funding and budget

Gazprom-Media operates principally through advertising, subscriptions, content distribution and intellectual-property revenue. State Media Monitor identified no recurring direct budget appropriation to the holding.

The company nevertheless receives shareholder support. Management has acknowledged support from the controlling shareholder for activities described as socially important or not fully commercial, including Detskoe Radio, the Match sports channels and NTV’s news broadcasting. The amount and form of that support were not disclosed.

Gazprom’s IFRS media-business segment, which consolidates Gazprom-Media Holding and its subsidiaries, reported revenue of RUB 163.5 billion in 2024 and RUB 173.2 billion in 2025. The 2025 statements reported a segment loss of RUB 14.8 billion, almost three per cent below the comparative 2024 figure. These are segment-level figures rather than standalone accounts of the holding company.

Editorial independence

News and current-affairs output across the holding, particularly at NTV, consistently reflects Kremlin positions. State Media Monitor identified no independent governance mechanism protecting editorial decisions from the controlling shareholder or state authorities.

Russia’s remaining major media are owned by the state or Kremlin allies, and that their employees receive presidential-administration instructions concerning subjects to cover or avoid. This is sector-level evidence and should be supplemented, where available, by an NTV-specific content analysis or documented testimony.

Russia’s Law on Mass Media recognises freedom to seek, receive, produce and distribute mass information in Article 1; prohibits censorship and prior approval in Article 3; limits founder interference, subject to the law, charter and founding agreement, in Article 18; and provides for an editorial office to operate on the basis of professional independence in Article 19.

Those are formal safeguards rather than structural independence. Article 18 permits intervention where authorised by law, charter or agreement, and permits founders to require publication of founder statements.

AI and digital policy

Gazprom-Media launched an experimental neuroproduction studio within D.lab in September 2023. The studio uses open-source, commercial and internally developed models for image, video, text and speech generation and processing. In May 2024 it released an AI-animated version of a Detskoe Radio podcast, with post-production and corrections undertaken by human specialists.

State Media Monitor could not identify a published group-wide policy governing editorial approval, mandatory human verification, model provenance or audience disclosure, and could not establish how consistently AI-generated output is labelled.

Article 9 of Federal Law No. 243-FZ, taking effect on 1 March 2027, requires covered model providers and large online platforms to provide users with a mechanism for attaching an AI-use warning to audio or visual material. It does not establish a universal duty requiring media organisations to label every item produced or assisted by artificial intelligence. Rutube appears likely to meet the platform threshold, but its legal treatment should be confirmed once the implementing arrangements are available.

Classification rationale

Gazprom-Media remains classified Captured Public or State Managed/Owned Media (CaPu).

It is controlled through a state-controlled corporate chain. Gazprom Group consolidated a controlling shareholding in December 2023, while Gazprombank remained a minority shareholder. The precise direct shareholders and their percentages were not publicly disclosed. The Board of Directors is chaired by Gazprom chief executive Alexey Miller, and no independent mechanism protecting editorial autonomy was identified.

It is commercially operated but receives shareholder support. Advertising, subscriptions, distribution and intellectual-property revenue constitute its operating model, and no recurring direct budget appropriation was identified. The Gazprom media-business segment recorded revenue of RUB 173.2 billion and a loss of RUB 14.8 billion in 2025. Management has acknowledged shareholder support for NTV news, sports broadcasting and other activities that are not fully commercial, but its scale and form remain undisclosed. The absence of demonstrated predominant budget financing is what distinguishes CaPu from State-Controlled Media.

Its news agenda is aligned with the state. NTV’s coverage reflects Kremlin positions, while Reporters Without Borders documents presidential-administration direction of Russia’s remaining major media. The formal protections in the Law on Mass Media are unsupported by independent governance or editorial oversight at the holding.

September 2026