April 21 (SeeNews) - International entertainment company Modern Times Group (MTG) said on Friday its Bulgarian operations recorded a commercial share of viewing of 42.6% in the first three months of the year, down from 43.4% in the first quarter of 2016.
The Stockholm-based group's international entertainment sector which comprises Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, recorded a rise in sales by 5.4% to 787 million Swedish krona ($87.68 million/81.68 million euro) in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period last year, MTG said in a statement.
In February, MTG announced that its Bulgarian operations recorded a commercial share of viewing of 42.9% last year, up from 41.3% in 2015.
In Bulgaria, MTG operates TV channels Nova, Kino Nova, Diema, Diema Family, Nova Sport, digital media company Net Info and video service EVA TV.
In January, the group signed an agreement to sell its 50% share of Czech Republic's FTV Prima Holding to Czech joint venture Denemo Media.
In March, MTG signed a deal to sell its free-TV, pay-TV digital and radio businesses in the Baltic region to US private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.
In the first quarter of 2017, the group sales rose 11% to 4.2 billion Swedish krona with an organic growth of 8% and 2% positive currency effect due to the appreciation of the euro, Danish and Norwegian krona, MTG said in the statement.
(1 euro = 9.6345 Swedish krona)