06.03.2015



Moscow, Russia - March 6, 2015 - CTC Media, Inc. ("CTC Media" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:CTCM), Russia's leading independent media company, has reached an agreement for the future partnership with entertainment company KidZania. The kids-focused theme park will open in Moscow in autumn 2015. KidZania Moscow will be the 18th KidZania to open globally and will become the most innovative of the currently operating entertainment centres.

KidZania park is a city built by adults for kids. Each facility allows children to study, work in adult jobs, earn kidZos (KidZania's currency) and also have fun spending the money they have earned. Every KidZania is themed as a replica of a real city, including theatres, shops, stadiums, and banks branded by real companies, where kids can explore the real life of their parents.

Under the partnership agreement with KidZania, CTC Media will equip the Moscow park with a TV studio, where children will have an opportunity to try out a variety of TV professions. The TV studio will offer various activities:

  • quiz TV shows with kids competing against each other in front of an audience of parents or other children;
  • entertainment and lifestyle news - coverage of the most interesting activities that will take place in other professional environments - i.e. at the theatre, restaurant, or at the stadium. Children will team up with a presenter and a mobile operator+correspondent crew to give the audience the highlights of the latest park's news.

The kids may also contribute into shooting children-oriented sitcoms, which are an important product category for CTC. CTC TV stars will pop into the KidZania studio now and then to participate in various activities.

Yuliana Slashcheva, CTC Media's CEO: Family TV viewing is at the core of CTC's positioning and there is no better place to welcome scores of family couples with children than the kid-focused entertainment park. Building CTC studio in KidZania centre is a perfect opportunity to strengthen our positioning. The studies have shown that reaching out directly to people in KidZania improves brand recognition and loyalty. We believe KidZania is a good platform to promote our family channel, TV series and shows. The studio will also provide us with the opportunity to promote and present new products that we produce, for example Second screen for Molodezhka (Youth Hockey League) series or the show-based mobile game. Another important point for us is that the TV studio will help us to raise public awareness about TV professions." 

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