As Dmitriy Basov, General Director of Dmitriy and Partners Company believes, NTV (Russian Independent Television) probably decided to cooperate with Alkasar Advertising Agency hoping to increase its profits. ‘An average local TV viewer gets to see very few minutes of their broadcasting, so NTV could be hoping to do better on the federal level. Yet increasing their sales in Yekaterinburg is going to be extremely difficult.’

‘We agreed to work with this channel since it is my utmost creed that advertising market should be as demonopolized as it can possibly be,’ Mr Basov says.

‘NTV is bound to have a greater sales record: you can make more money by selling on individual order basis rather than acting as a wholesaler. The channel used to make up 14% of Telets Advertising Agency turnover, and a loss like this cannot be made up for either by regional OTV television or Euronews,’ Mr Basov noted.