The shooting period of a film after the mysterious Nikolay Gogol’s story of the same name is moving towards its end. The film is being shot according to the first (unedited and censor-free) version of the book. The film is to be shown in March 2009 (200 years after Nikolay Gogol’s birthday).

On 31 July, Borys Lozhkyn, the president of United Media Holding spoke at the meeting of the European Business Association PR Committee, making a presentation “Objectives & Scopes of Dynamically Growing Ukrainian Media Market”. 

A demand for Ukrainian TV production in foreign markets is growing. The best Ukrainian TV novels are bought not only by CIS countries, but also by Japan, Romania, Norway and other non-Russian speaking countries. The distribution’s geographic expansion could stimulate the producers and bring down the film prices for Ukrainian TV channels.          

Adrian Sarbu, CME's Chief Operating Officer, intends to propel 1+1 TV channel to the top of Ukrainian TV market. It was reported by the 1+1’s largest shareholder, Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME).

Net revenues of Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME) for the first half of 2008 increased to $528.9 million from $364.2 million in the first half of 2007. It was reported by the 1+1’s largest shareholder, Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME).

Mohammad Zakhur, a Pakistani businessman, will invest in Savik Shuster Studios. Savik Shuster founded this production company in order to produce his original projects. It was reported by Segodnya newspaper, which refers to its own sources of information.

Net revenues of Studio 1+1 TV channel for the six months ended June 30, 2008 increased 31.13%, to $53.47 million from $40.77 million in the first half of 2007. It was reported by the 1+1’s largest shareholder, Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. (CME).    

On 14 October 2008 at the world’s audiovisual content market MIPCOM 2008 the Ukrainian Cannes Party takes place.   

Кабельный оператор «Воля» объединяется с региональными кабельными сетями, принадлежащими фондам прямых инвестиций под управлением SigmaBleyzer (Oisiw Limited) – основного акционера «Воли». Об этом говорится в сообщении пресс-службы компании.

According to Ukrainian TV-panel, first few showings of the 7th International Festival of Young Pop-singers “Novaya volna 2008” received 9,73% of the viewer audience 18+

Vice president of the National Broadcasting Company of Ukraine Mikhaylo Koblya, in his interview to “TK” said, that his company lost EUR 3,3 mln on broadcasting UEFA EURO 2008 on “Pershiy Nazional`niy” (“First National”) TV channel.

TET TV channel is planning to move aside its strategy that based on entertainment and political apathy to expand its viewing audience. Besides, TET bought in Russia number of TV programs about paranormal phenomena, few new Russian TV shows and even a dance show. In this season, According to Valery Grosman, Deputy chairman of board on programming issues, TET is to make some drastic changes in its viewing grid.

Despite mobile market saturation, mobile operators won’t cut their budgets. Still, they are going to decrease TV advertisement to increase outdoor advertising and BTL.

ICTV, Noviy, STB, М1 TV channels and sales houses Stil`-C+ and Inter-reklama prolonged their agreements for ad sales. It was quite surprising as most marketers expected that New Commercial Telegroup (NTC) that was founded by named channels would star selling ad by itself.    

According to insider information, Mr. Benkendorf will assume new office of chief producer at TRC Kyiv (Kyiv Media Holding) on August 1. Still, it was not possible to receive personal confirmation of that information from Ehor Benkendorf, because he did not answer to phone calls.

According to Dmitriy Kotelenets, chief executive officer of Pershy Avtomobilny, his channel refused to receive license for cable broadcasting because of the license’s price – UAH 0,59 m.

Inter TV channel claim, that it hasn’t signed a deal with National Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (NTCU) for buying sublicense on Olympics translations because of nonobservance of time limits and prescribed conditions by national broadcaster.

The live broadcast of the football match between Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk for the  Superbowl of Ukraine on 15 July at Inter TV channel won 23.90% audience share and 8.10% rating (among people aged 18 and over).

Pershy Natsionalny (First National) TV channel bought the exclusive right to broadcast the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics which take place in China on 8-24 August. This right cost $900,000, according to Mikhail Koblya, the first vice-president of the National Television Company of Ukraine.

“Perviy Nazional`niy” (First National) TV channel  and “Megasport” TV channel couldn’t reach an agreement for acquiring sublicense for broadcasting ХХІХ Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. This forced Perviy Nazional`niy to decrease it prices on sponsorship package.