Alexey Pivovarov Appointed Head of CTC Media's TV

MOSCOW, Oct. 24, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CTC Media, Inc. ("CTC Media" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: CTCM ) announces the appointment of Alexey Pivovarov as Director, Television and Transmedia Projects. His appointment will take effect November 5, 2013 and forms part of the Company's implementation of its strategy for developing digital and transmedia projects.

In addition to Alexey Pivovarov, the CTC Media team welcomes Irina Sosnovaya who will serve as the Deputy Director, Television and Transmedia Projects, as well as Kirill Kulagin, Stanislav Miroshnichenko, and Ivan Vdovin, who have been appointed as the Company's line producers. The new team will be responsible for developing creative concepts for CTC Media's cross-platform development and integrating the Company's television projects into digital media. These appointments will also take effect on November 5, 2013.

Yuliana Slashcheva, CTC Media's Chief Executive Officer: "I have known Alexey Pivovarov for a long time and I have always followed his and his team's projects with great interest. Many of them can be called 'revolutionary' for Russian television. Alexey's work harmoniously merges real life and television and tells honest stories about people and events. That is extremely important for a quality documentary. His work communicates the characters' thoughts and genuine emotions, which is absolutely necessary to create successful transmedia projects. Alexey is a real TV star who has worked in prime time on one of the country's largest television channels for 15 years and produced a whole range of bright, successful internet projects."

Viacheslav Murugov, CTC Media's Chief Content Officer, Head of CTC Channel: "Alexey Pivovarov is a solid TV brand. This infinitely talented and bright man who has flawless professional taste has reached amazing heights in TV journalism. I do not doubt that great success awaits him in entertainment television. Alexey feels the nuances of the transformations happening in the modern world of media. He is capable not only of reacting quickly to the challenges of the times, but also predicting world trends in the media industry. That is really important for us. CTC Media is an innovative media company. In addition to traditional entertainment television formats, we are developing the promising arena of non-standard, transmedia, and experimental projects. The appearance of Alexey and his team will tangibly strength the Company's creative resources and help us reach a new level."

Alexey Pivovarov: "I think I can say that I have accomplished a certain success in what I have been doing for most of my life. Having worked 20 years at the NTV channel, I am ready to test myself in new roles in the media. Television is developing rapidly, moving forward, and merging with the Internet. I want to be on the frontline of this process. That is why I received Yuliana Slashcheva and Viacheslav Murugov's offer to join CTC Media at the right time. My team and I have a lot of ideas and I hope they will be useful for the Company."

Notes to editors:

Alexey Pivovarov, 39, has worked for NTV Channel from 1993 to 2013, as the correspondent for information service and "Namedni" program, as well as the presenter for the programs: "Today", "Country and World", "Aviators". Starting 2008, he served as the head of the NTV channel's evening news programs. He is also an author and producer of a number of large scale documentary projects. In 2004, Mr. Pivovarov was awarded with the most prestigious Russian television award TEFI. His documentary movie "Rzhev. The Unknown Battle of Georgy Zhukov" won the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts' Nika Award in 2009. In 2010 he received GQ magazine's prestigious award "Man of the Year – 2010" in the TV Personality category. Mr. Pivovarov graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Lomonosov Moscow State University.

About CTC Media, Inc.

CTC Media is a leading Russian independent media company, with operations throughout Russia and elsewhere in the CIS. It operates three free-to-air television networks in Russia – CTC, Domashny and PERETZ – as well as Channel 31 in Kazakhstan and a TV company in Moldova, with a combined potential audience of over 150 million people. The international pay-TV version of the CTC channel is available in North America, Europe, Central Asia, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Middle East and Kyrgyzstan. PERETZ is also available in Belarus. CTC Media has a number of digital entertainment media assets: videomore.ru , domashniy.ru , ctc.ru , peretz.ru . The Company's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "CTCM". For more information on CTC Media, please visit www.ctcmedia.ru .
 

For further information, please contact: Ekaterina Ostrova Director, Corporate Communications and Investor Relations + 7 495 783 3650 Irina Klimova Senior Manager, Investor Relations +7 495 981 0740