Today, the STS Media holding officially announced the appointment of Daria Legoni-Fialko as the director of the STS TV channel. Unofficially, information about the appointment spread in the summer, but there was no confirmation from the company.
Now, from September 1 (namely, when the appointment comes into force), Daria Legoni-Fialko takes over the post, where she will be responsible for managing the channel and focusing on content production, programming and marketing. Holding "STS-Media" has already announced plans for the new season, so there is a lot of work for the new leader. And such close attention to the appointment is due to the fact that before joining STS Media, Daria Legoni-Fialko headed the TV-3 channel, which, under her leadership, showed significant growth. Now the top manager herself shows career growth. Daria Legoni-Fialko has been working in the TV industry since 1997. She previously held the position of General Producer television projects by Star Media and various posts on the channel "1 + 1" (Ukraine). Prior to that, she graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, and in 2006 received an MBA from the International Institute of Management.
Recall that the position of the director of the STS channel was empty until recently. Previously, under the previous leadership of the holding, it was occupied by Elvira Makhmutova, but she left the post in March last year. After her, the powers were shared by Yuliana Slashcheva and Lika Blank. Moreover, Lika Blank was the general director of the Domashny and STS channels. Then STS-Media changed its leadership. Vyacheslav Murugov, who previously worked in the top management of STS-Media, returned to the place of the holding's CEO, Yuliana Slashcheva left the company, and after that, reshuffles began to occur in the team. Lika Blank, who held the post of General Director of both channels, as well as the General Producer of STS Media, moved to the position of Advisor to the General Director. The position of general producer of STS Media has been abolished. Marina Khripunova, who previously held the position of the program director of the channel, was appointed General Director of the Domashny TV channel. The appointment took effect July 18. Marina Khripunova also temporarily, until the appointment of a permanent head, acts as head of the CTC Love TV channel.
By the way
From today, the newly appointed director of the TV-3 channel, Ekaterina Dunaeva, who replaced Daria Fialko in this post, has also taken up her duties. Previously, since 2012, Ekaterina Dunaeva worked at TV-3 as a program director. In 2011, she participated in the launch of the Paramount Comedy TV channel as a consultant for VIACOM. From 2007 to 2011, she worked at the MTV Russia TV channel, holding the positions of Program Directorate Manager, Purchasing Manager, Head of the Program Directorate Planning Department and Content Purchasing Director. In the rating of young media managers in Russia, she was assigned the category - AAA (industry leader).
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In the 2000s, CTC Media was the first of the Russian media holdings to conduct an IPO in the West, but it was also the first to suffer from the law on the “nationalization” of the media. How has a business that was once considered main story success in Russian media?
The career of the CEO of CTC Media Vyacheslav Murugov began in 2005 - Alexander Rodnyansky called him there (Photo: Arseniy Neskhodimov for RBC)
“Every time I went into this office to the bosses, I was captured by the view from the window,” Vyacheslav Murugov, CEO of the STS Media holding, tells RBC magazine with a smile. His career in the company, excluding a short break, has been going on for 12 years, and Murugov reached the top step in the corporate hierarchy in May 2016. Now he receives guests in a spacious office on the 31st floor of the business center on Leningradsky Prospekt. Behind him are shelves with TEFI figurines (Murugov has 12 in total) and photographs of children. “My main projects,” Vyacheslav laughs.
About a year and a half has passed since Murugov was appointed CEO. During this time, he managed to almost completely change the team of leaders of the holding. Moreover, at least five new managers of CTC Media in the past worked under the leadership of Olga Paskina, the CEO of another large Russian media holding, the National Media Group (NMG), with which CTC Media has common shareholders - structures of Rossiya Bank Yuri Kovalchuk and his partners. In addition to personnel intersections, CTC Media and NMG have joint companies. RBC magazine talked to more than ten former and current managers of the two holdings and found out who and what brings the companies together with a combined audience of tens of millions of people.
Business on stage
The STS TV channel began broadcasting in 1996, the main role in the launch was played by the American Peter Gervey, the founder of StoryFirst Communications. STS was the first on domestic television to completely give the air to entertainment content. The media reported that Gervey invested $ 10 million in the creation of the channel. A year after its foundation, the financial and industrial Alfa Group entered the capital. By 1999, she had increased her stake in STS to 25.2% by investing $31.5 million.
The channel was headed by Roman Petrenko, a former marketer at Mars Corporation (later CEO of TNT). And in 2002, at the invitation of the president of Alfa-Bank, Peter Aven, STS began to be managed by producer Alexander Rodnyansky. It was under his leadership that the StoryFirst holding that was formed was named CTC Media (at that time it included CTC and its regional subsidiaries). The company was preparing for an IPO and gradually acquired assets. In 2005, STS Media launched the Domashny TV channel, in 2007, for $65 million, it bought the fourth largest TV channel in Kazakhstan, Channel 31, in terms of audience, and in 2008, DTV (now Che) for $395 million.
The IPO took place in June 2006 on the US stock exchange NASDAQ. CTC Media placed about 18% of the shares for $380.5 million, capitalization amounted to $2.1 billion - it was the largest transaction in the history of Russian media. The shares continued to grow - a year later, the capitalization doubled, but the life of the company after entering the IPO turned into a "difficult exercise," says Vyacheslav Murugov. He joined the company in 2005 at the invitation of Rodnyansky, heading the production department for STS series.
Under Alexander Rodnyansky, CTC Media was actively buying and launching new channels, and also went on an IPO. At its peak, the entire company was worth $4.7 billion. (Photo: Anna Temerina for RBC)
“In the television business, you often have to wait until a particular project swings, and the status of a public company obliges you to publish detailed reports every quarter. If the numbers fall, there is pressure from the shareholders, we have to take unpopular measures: remove projects from the grid before they are revealed, ”explains Murugov. At the same time, management works “like on a stage,” he says: “Everyone knows who received how much money, what indicators they did not fulfill, and so on.”
In the first half of 2008, the share price of CTC Media constantly updated records, at the peak the entire company was worth about $4.7 billion. Under these conditions, the attention of shareholders almost completely switched from content development to monitoring stock quotes, recalls Rodnyansky. Following the new priorities, the owners of CTC Media decided to change the head of the holding: at the invitation of Aven, to develop “more systems approach in management” (quote from Kommersant), the company was headed by financier Anton Kudryashov, who previously managed the NTV Plus network and was on the board of directors of the Afisha publishing house.
He replaced Rodnyansky as CEO, but the latter remained in the company - in a specially created "strategic" post of president of CTC Media. At the same time, the position of general producer appeared in the company - it was Murugov, who by that time had grown to the position of executive producer of STS. “Anton had to be supported - to fill in the missing skills in the television business. To simplify completely, it was assumed that one [Murugov] would be responsible for creativity, and the other [Kudryashov] for business, ”Murugov explains.
From a financial point of view, CTC Media felt good: only 2009 was relatively unsuccessful - revenue fell to $506 million from $640 million in 2008, the company explained this by the reduction in the advertising market during the crisis and the weakening of the ruble (net profit at the same time rose to $100 million from $22.5 million in 2008). In 2010, the holding increased its revenue to $601.3 million and its net profit to $145.7 million.
At the same time, a competitor of STS, TNT, owned by Gazprom-Media Holding, began to gain popularity. “TNT was not a public television company, for many years everyone was trying to make the main thing - a library of quality content, and all financial problems were solved based on this task, even if the program cost more than its estimated profitability. In STS Media, at that time, predictive ratings were made, profitability standards and a bunch of other indicators were set, ”says Dmitry Troitsky, former general producer of TNT, who managed the DTV and Perets channels while working at STS Media.
Rodnyansky is sure that the problems began precisely after an attempt to compete with TNT. According to him, as CEO, he developed CTC as a channel for family viewing: “And TNT from the very beginning marked a different general line of broadcasting - young men build relationships with young women. For this reason, we did not take the Comedy Club to the channel, and as a result, the project was successfully realized on TNT. As a result, trying to turn from a family channel into a youth channel, "STS turned out to be a secondary product, relatively speaking, TNT for the poor," the producer adds.
According to Rodnyansky, STS generated 75% of the holding's revenue, and its audience was falling. If at the end of 2009 the share of CTC - the number of viewers who watch the channel in relation to all those who watch TV - increased from 11.8 to 12.2%, then from 2010 to 2011, viewing among the audience from 6 to 54 years fell to 10.7%, according to company reports. At the same time, dependence on advertising revenue became even stronger - from 2009 to 2011, its share in the total revenue of CTC Media increased from 93 to 95%, while revenues from sublicensing and own production continued to fall. In 2009, production companies (Costafilm and Soho Media, merged in July 2011 into Story First Production) brought in $1.2 million, in 2011 - only $378 thousand. Total revenues from sublicensing and in-house production in 2010 amounted to $38 million, in 2011 - $15.8 million.
Kudryashov, in an interview with RBC magazine, said that even during his leadership, the company was thinking about delisting in order to become more competitive in the new Russian realities. Management abandoned the idea of leaving the exchange due to high costs - it would have cost "several tens of millions of dollars," the manager says, finding it difficult to name the exact amount. “No one is stopping companies like Apple, Google and Facebook from making quick decisions, their public status does not stop them,” Rodnyansky argues. In his opinion, the problems began because "the steward of the company was put in charge of the hard-working people who, behind common words, hid their fear of the challenges of the profession."
“The main problem was brand dilution. Management stopped taking risks in everything, being afraid to make a mistake and sink in numbers, they stopped launching such long series as Poor Nastya, Don’t Be Born Beautiful, ”recalls Rodnyansky, who left STS Media in June 2009.
"Russian Murdoch"
In the summer of 2011, Alfa Group withdrew from the capital of STS Media: 25.2% of the holding's shares were bought by Cypriot Telcrest for $1.07 billion. At the time of the transaction, the owners of Telcrest were structures associated with Yury Kovalchuk's Rossiya Bank and its partners - NMG, Mediaset affiliated with it, as well as Surgutneftegaz and Itera Media Limited (was part of the Itera group). A year later, the Itera group, now owned by Rosneft (renamed RN-Gas), left STS Media, selling 27.88% of Telcrest to Mediaset. Today, control over Telcrest is retained by the structures of Rossiya Bank and its partners: the bank owns 26.03%, Abit Holding Limited - 29.05%, NMG - 5.29%, Surgutneftegaz - 9.53%.
Yuliana Slashcheva joined CTC Media in 2013. She left the holding after selling the business and leaving the Nasdaq exchange. (Photo: Ekaterina Chesnokova / RIA Novosti)
Aven negotiated the sale directly with Kovalchuk. “Our package gives more rights than just blocking. By agreement of shareholders, we actually shared control with Modern Times Group (Swedish MTG, owned 38.3% of CTC Media). We really had equal rights in managing the company with our Swedish partner. The new shareholder agreement was rewritten virtually unchanged. The structures of Yuri Kovalchuk in STS received exactly the same rights as MTG, ”Aven told Forbes in 2011. Then he called Kovalchuk "Russian [Rupert] Murdoch", specifying that he is the largest media investor in the country. A representative of Alfa-Bank did not answer questions from RBC magazine.
Six months after the deal, Kudryashov left the company, becoming the CEO of VimpelCom. According to him, having decided to leave, he was “ahead of events”: the former CEO of CTC Media claims that the new shareholder was determined to bring his team and “loyal CEO” to the holding. Kudryashov did not communicate with Kovalchuk. He claims that he did not know about the forthcoming sale of Alfa Group's stake to Telcrest: the shareholders negotiated confidentially.
And about. CFO Boris Podolsky became CEO of STS Media after Kudryashov's resignation (the board of directors approved him in his position in June 2012). He led the company for about a year and a half, until August 2013. During this time, the holding slightly increased its revenue - by 5%, to $ 805 million. However, the main problem, the decline in the popularity of STS, only worsened. At the end of 2012, the share of the channel in the target audience (6-54) fell to a record low of 9.6%. Podolsky refused to communicate with RBC.
In July 2013, Vedomosti named two possible reasons for Podolsky's resignation: "insufficient loyalty" to Kovalchuk, as well as the lack of a long-term strategy for STS Media. In August 2013, Yuliana Slashcheva was appointed CEO of STS Media, most of whose career is associated with the Mikhailov and Partners communication agency. According to a RBC source close to STS Media, Slashcheva was "the first person of the new shareholder as CEO." Slashcheva herself denied this: in an interview with Snob, she stated that relations with the shareholder were limited to the fact that Rossiya Bank had worked with Mikhailov and Partners for a long time. Slashcheva declined to comment for this article.
As CEO, she had to reduce the holding's dependence on television advertising, whose share in revenue continued to grow and in 2013 amounted to 97%. The company had to earn more on content, explains a source close to the management of CTC Media. The Russian authorities have made adjustments to the rules of the game in the market. Less than a year after Slashcheva took office, State Duma deputies quickly worked on amendments to the media law, which forbade foreigners from being founders of Russian media and owning more than 20% of their authorized capital. President Vladimir Putin signed the law in October 2015, it came into force at the beginning of 2016.
Shortage of buyers
CTC Media turned out to be the largest media asset in terms of revenue, which fell under the requirements of the new law. At the time of its adoption, most of the shares belonged to foreigners: 38% - the Swedish MTG, 36% were in free float on NASDAQ, the only shareholder with Russian beneficiaries was Telcrest. From the day when the deputies introduced amendments to the law on the media, until they were signed, the company's shares fell by almost 51% - capitalization decreased from $1.48 billion to $728 million. CTC Media was cheaper only at the height of the 2008-2009 crisis.
A month before the adoption of the law, Slashcheva tried to take the company out of the blow. She turned to the State Duma Committee on Information Policy with a request to make an exception for public companies, Vedomosti wrote in October 2014 and confirmed to RBC magazine a source close to the management of STS Media. But by the time the law came into force, Slashcheva had not received a response, the interlocutor added.
Consideration of the amendments was preceded by US Treasury sanctions against Putin's "inner circle". Restrictive measures affected the Rossiya Bank and Yuri Kovalchuk: the US authorities banned the bank's shareholder from entering, and also froze his assets in the country. Since its inception, CTC Media has been a company with an "American residence" - the parent legal entity CTC Media Inc., in which Telcrest bought a stake, was registered in the state of Delaware. Thus, the sanctions deprived Telcrest of the opportunity to increase its share in the holding or sell the asset, and the shareholder's representatives on the board of directors could no longer vote on key issues.
According to a source close to the leadership of CTC Media, the management had to find a way to comply with the requirements of the new law in a short time. “Many options were considered, up to the most exotic ones: both the transfer to trust management, and the transfer of shares into debt obligations,” says a source familiar with the discussions. As a result, two months later, the board of directors considered the sale of the asset to be the best option.
“Everything about everything — from finding an investor to closing a deal and leaving the exchange — was exactly a year. This is a very short period. The delisting alone technically takes almost six months,” explains a source close to the company’s management. According to him, Slashcheva’s amendments “virtually left no opportunity to engage in television as such,” and the main KPI was the successful restructuring of the company, which is especially valuable given the fact that American minority shareholders who “love and know how to sue on any occasion” owned almost 40 % STS Media. “The fact that in the end there was not a single trial is simply amazing, American lawyers called it a miracle [miracle],” says an interlocutor of RBC magazine.
In addition to delisting, the company needed to find buyers for 75% of the shares - the shares of all foreign shareholders. “There were catastrophically few applicants: the crisis, the market is falling, the revenue of all channels is declining. The market of potential buyers was only 10-15 people, ”recalls a source who participated in the preparation of the transaction. The revenue of CTC Media in 2014 decreased by 15%, to $711.4 million, net profit - by 29%, to $108 million. The share of CTC also fell from 11.3% to 10.2%.
Three applicants became interested in the company. Among them is Mikhail Prokhorov's ONEXIM group, as well as a consortium of investors led by Amedia founder Alexander Akopov and his longtime partner Leonard Blavatnik, two sources close to STS Media say. According to one of them, "the board of directors did not believe in the serious intentions of the consortium," and Prokhorov was "far from being the most active applicant." Akopov declined to comment, the ONEXIM representative did not answer questions from RBC magazine.
The main contender was the third participant, the “first contact” with which was made by the UBS bank, hired by STS Media as a consultant - they became the UTH group owned by Alisher Usmanov and Ivan Tavrin (YuTV Holding, manages the channels Yu, Muz-TV and Disney). Slashcheva conducted detailed negotiations with buyers, two sources close to STS Media say.
renaissance era
In July 2015, Slashcheva and YuTV CEO Andrey Dimitrov signed an agreement that guaranteed YuTV the exclusive right to negotiate the purchase of the Russian business of STS Media. If the board of directors had chosen a different buyer, YTV would have been reimbursed for all consultant and legal expenses.
Usmanov and Tavrin were perceived by the board of directors of STS Media as "strategic interests," says a source close to the holding's management. At that time, each of the buyers had extensive experience in owning media assets. Usmanov, in addition to a controlling stake in YuTV, owns the Kommersant publishing house and controls the Mail.Ru Group. Tavrin owns 46.95% of YuTV, since 2006 he owns the Choose Radio group, which unites more than 70 radio stations in almost 20 cities of Russia.
At the end of September 2015, CTC Media entered into a definitive agreement to sell 75% of YuTV's operating business for $200 million. The closing of the transaction was announced on December 24, 2015. A few days later, Usmanov, in an interview with Rossiya 24, said that Tavrin suggested that he consider buying a stake in STS Media. At the same time, Usmanov stressed that his partner would participate in asset management. At the beginning of 2016, Tavrin, Dimitrov and the general director of the Kommersant publishing house Vladimir Zhelonkin entered the board of directors of the Russian structure CTC Media. Subsequently, Tavrin headed the board of directors of the company.
Ivan Tavrin heads the board of directors of CTC Media. He also owns a stake in the company that controls the holding, YuTV. (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina for RBC)
In May 2016, STS Media left Slashchev. Tavrin, who left the post of CEO of MegaFon a month earlier, was considered the most likely candidate for the post of new CEO, two interlocutors of RBC magazine, close to STS Media, say. But, according to a source who worked on the board of directors with Tavrin, a few months after the transaction, his participation in the life of the company "gradually faded away." Tavrin never intended to head STS Media, since he is no longer interested in a career on TV, an acquaintance of the businessman assures. Tavrin himself did not answer questions from RBC magazine.
At the end of May 2016, CTC Media completed the restructuring - the company left NASDAQ. The new head structure of the holding was LLC STS Investments, later renamed STS Media: 75% in this company belongs to YuTV, the other shareholder was the American CTC Media (its sole shareholder is Telcrest).
At the same time, the company announced the appointment of a new CEO: Murugov, who left the holding in 2014 due to disagreements with Slashcheva, became the CEO, says a source close to STS Media. During a two-year break, he worked at the Art Pictures Vision studio, which released, among other things, the Molodezhka series for STS, the films Duhless, Stalingrad. The main shareholder of Art Pictures is NMG (80%).
According to Murugov, the proposal came jointly from two shareholders. CTC Media is a benchmark for the television business in Russia. The only ideal business model of its kind, where there are no state subsidies, everything is subject exclusively to business logic. So I'm glad that it was just necessary to develop what had been done before me, ”says the head of the holding.
“With the arrival of Vyacheslav and his team at CTC Media, a renaissance will begin and a return to its former heights,” hopes Eduard Iloyan, general producer of Yellow, Black and White, a key content provider for CTC. “While the company was led by people who were not core in the television business, it began a regressive path from a content company to a financial one.” What has changed in the management of CTC Media over the past year and a half?
common space
The CEO of Domashny, Marina Khripunova, is the only head of STS Media channels from Murugov's team who grew up inside the holding. The directors of CTC, Che and CTC Love - Daria Legoni-Fialko, Lev Makarov and Kira Laskari are from ProfMedia, which joined Gazprom-Media Holding (GPMH) in 2014. ProfMedia at that time was headed by Olga Paskina, the current CEO of NMG.
“I am honored that all these professionals agreed to be members of my team. Yes, they come from GPMH, but we have two large entertainment holdings on the market, and people from time to time move from one to the other... All these people worked with Olga [Paskina] several years ago, who headed the NMG and is present in the general space with us, ”Murugov comments on personnel coincidences.
The “common space”, which the CEO of CTC Media is talking about, began to take on legal shape in the spring of 2017, when CTC Media and NMG announced the start of joint sales of sponsored advertising through the Everest sales house. In the summer, the companies also combined the purchase of content rights and the back office. The functions of the latter for both holdings are now performed by the Media Business Solutions company, headed by the operating director of STS Media, Svetlana Fefilova, a former vice president of ProfMedia TV. Since June 2017, NMG has held a 51% stake in all three joint ventures.
“The idea to create a service company for TV channels, which will deal with administrative and financial issues, was born in ProfMedia. The company Profmedia Business Solutions worked there, which served the holding's channels. In the second stage, she had to offer her services to other companies. And since history repeated itself in NMG, it means that Olga believes in this business idea, and the board of directors of CTC Media believes in its effectiveness, ”explains a source on the market who is familiar with Paskina.
YTV can also connect to the service company NMG and STS Media, but the company has gone through a “difficult process of integrating with Disney, so it is still studying the issue,” explains a source familiar with the situation. “To fully realize these opportunities at this stage would be possible only if we owned 100% of the asset. In STS Media, our share is 75%, in Disney - 80%, and this leads to the impossibility of full integration of companies, ”YuTV CEO Andrey Dimitrov explained to RBC magazine.
Four sources of RBC magazine, close to the management of STS Media and NMG, say that now the holdings with common shareholders are, in fact, “one company”. In this configuration, Murugov - an ideal person as CEO, one of them says: “He is the most suitable leader for a company that can become a production and production unit large group. And people like Tavrin and Paskina are talking about global governance.”
“NMG and STS Media have synergy around the television business. All issues related to television and content are decided by Murugov and his team. NMG does not get into this, ”says a source close to NMG.
All recent decisions to change the managers of CTC Media were made "in agreement" with the CEO of NMG, four RBC sources close to CTC Media say. However, the interlocutor of RBC magazine, who is familiar with the situation, does not agree with this interpretation: “The truth is that all these people were given references. Paskina and many tops of STS Media worked for a long time in the same team at ProfMedia. I think Murugov consulted on the candidates, but he made the final decision himself.”
Market for two
“Initially, it was assumed that NMG would be the buyer of STS Media. The group drew attention to the growing assets that make a profit, ”says a source who left CTC Media shortly before the sale of YuTV.
If NMG had immediately bought the asset, the restructuring of the company could have ended in courts, another source close to the leadership of CTC Media explains: US citizens are prohibited from entering into transactions with persons and companies subject to sanctions. In addition to Rossiya Bank and Yuri Kovalchuk, the restrictions also affected his nephew, NMG President Kirill Kovalchuk. According to the source, Usmanov was “persuaded for a long time” to buy a stake in STS Media in order for the deal to take place. When asked about plans to buy STS Media, the NMG press service said that the deal required "significant resources in a limited time frame", then the group revised the strategy and decided not to participate in the process. Usmanov and Tavrin are big businessmen acting in their own commercial interests in all their projects, the NMG representative added.
According to Andrey Dimitrov, CEO of YuTV, the company has always been interested in STS Media "as the largest private television holding." In 2015, YuTV was offered to buy a significant minority stake, but the holding was interested in a "majority stake - ideally 100%." Another source close to the management of CTC Media assures that when the lawyers were preparing the deal [on the sale of 75% of CTC Media], it was not assumed that NMG would be its ultimate interest: “Maybe at the level of [Yuri] Kovalchuk and Alisher Burkhanovich [Usmanov] understood this, but it was unknown even at the level of Yuliana [Slascheva].”
Usmanov's interest is logical, the former manager of STS Media argues: he could buy 75% of STS Media in order to merge with YuTV and then get rid of a large asset in favor of NMG. “YuTV has been a burden for him for a long time, because he rushed into new media - and he did the right thing, they earn a lot more,” says the source. The press service of USM Holdings, the asset manager of Usmanov and his partners, declined to comment. The NMG press service said that if the shareholders decide to sell YuTV, the group will consider buying the asset.
The interest in CTC Media is explained by the desire of the NMG to challenge the country's largest private media holding, GPMC, which has a more diversified television portfolio, one of the former top managers of CTC Media believes. “NMG management has always discussed GPMC in the context that they are much, just many times larger,” says a source close to NMG. According to him, CTC Media is of interest to NMG as "an established, successful and well-known brand in the field of on-air entertainment television, there is no such asset legally in NMG's portfolio." There are four of them in GPMH - TNT, TNT4, Pyatnitsa and TV-3 (the last two showed the largest net profit on the market in 2016 - 1.1 billion rubles and 1 billion rubles, respectively).
In terms of cash flows, GPMC and NMG are still really incomparable: at the end of 2016, GPMC's revenue amounted to 82.2 billion rubles, NMG's revenue, according to RBC magazine, was 23.17 billion rubles. But NMG is approaching its main competitor in terms of audience, actively expanding its portfolio of television assets.
After the adoption of the law on the ban on foreign ownership of the media, the holding of Yuri Kovalchuk and partners bought up a whole scattering of TV channels from foreign broadcasters. For example, 80% of the Viasat cable channels (History, TV1000, Russkoye Kino, etc.) owned by MTG were bought by Anatoly Karyakin, president of the outdoor advertising operator Gallery, in October 2015, and a couple of months later he sold NMG. Later, NMG also included 11 cable TV channels of the Discovery network (including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC and Eurosport) - the group also received 80% of the operating business. In May 2016, a joint venture between NMG (80%) and Discovery Networks (20%) took control of Turner Broadcasting System's Russian assets, including CNN and children's channels Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
The total share of GPMC's TV assets (together with cable channels), according to Mediascope, is 26.13%. So far, NMG boasts an audience of 13.34% (excluding Channel One, but with a share in the pay TV market). But together with the total share of CTC Media channels, NMG can come close to a competitor, having received 22.94% of the audience.
STS Love
31 channels
VTV
The channel airs a large number of films, television series, cartoons and entertainment shows. Target audience of STS: everyone from 10 to 45 years old. The coverage of the Russian audience for 2015 is 96.2%. As of 2015, it ranks sixth in terms of audience share among nationwide channels (the best performance was from 2002 to 2011, when the channel ranked fourth).
On December 21, 2009, the international version of the channel began broadcasting - "STS International".
Management
CEOs
Directors
Main Producers
- Ekaterina Andrienko (since September 1, 2016)
Program directors
Creative directors
Creative Producers
Story
Early years (1996-2002)
On December 1, 1996, the Moscow decimeter channel AMTV, St. Petersburg Channel Six and several regional independent television companies were merged under the brand name STS-8(which at first stood for "Commonwealth of Television Stations", and later, since 2002, as "Network of Television Stations"), the number "8" meant the number of regional television companies. Initially, the broadcasting volume was only 9 hours a day, and the channel began broadcasting from 15:00 (on weekends), 17:00 (on weekdays). Soon, when new regional TV stations began to enter the network, the channel was renamed to STS. In the early years, the channel's broadcasting schedule consisted of foreign-produced television series and a small number of domestic-produced programs. The first general director of the channel was Sergey Skvortsov. The well-known TV journalist Oleg Vakulovsky worked as the main producer on the channel, and Vasily Kiknadze was the channel's sports producer.
In 1998, Roman Petrenko becomes the general director of STS. Under him, in 1999, the channel's indicators approached those of the central channels ORT, RTR and NTV, while ahead of TV-6 and TV Center.
The era of Rodnyansky (2002-2008)
CTC audience share in the early 2000s (under Roman Petrenko) was established in the region of 5-6%. To further increase the ratings, a change in concept was required - CTC from its very foundation was positioned as a youth channel, its broadcast was occupied by predominantly foreign-made content, so it was necessary to reposition itself into a channel for a family audience and increase the number of projects of its own production. This new leadership of STS began to be implemented: in 2002, a management change took place on the channel, instead of Roman Petrenko, Alexander Rodnyansky became the channel's general director, who radically changed the program strategy.
Rodnyansky contributed to the development of journalism on STS (it was under him that “Details”, “Stories in Details”), intellectual games (the most famous is “The smartest”), entertainment and educational programs (“Galileo”), with him STS successfully mastered improvisation show genre ("Good jokes", "Thank God you've come!"). In 2007, the TV channel held a music competition "STS lights a superstar" - the young Russian singer Nyusha became the winner of this musical TV show.
Alexander Tsekalo, who held the position of head of the STS entertainment broadcasting department from September 2002 to June 1, 2007, also contributed to the development of weekend programs (he was fired due to disagreements with the general director of the TV channel Alexander Rodnyansky, after which Tsekalo moved to Channel One ”, where he became Deputy General Director for Special Projects and TV presenter).
STS also developed the serial direction. In the fall of 2003, the channel launched a line of domestic series. Of the series launched in the first 2 years (in 2003-2005), the most successful were adaptations based on detectives Daria Dontsova and Tatyana Ustinova, historical drama"Poor Nastya" (the first Russian telenovela filmed using Hollywood technologies - filming by the streaming method close to the air), the sitcom "My Fair Nanny", the dramedy "Don't Be Born Beautiful". From that moment on, Russian TV series gradually begin to force out imported TV series from prime time. By 2009, domestic television series pushed the Western ones to the night, as well as to the morning broadcasts. Television series such as Grey's Anatomy, Charmed, Xena the Warrior Princess, The Lonely Hearts, Smallville Secrets, The Big Bang Theory and Body Parts fall under this category.
The result of all these transformations was the growth of the audience share of the channel: in 2002-2006, the ratings of CTC invariably went up, approaching the indicators of the NTV meter channel (in 2006, CTC's share reached a record value for the channel - 10.5%). However, then the STS declined. The end-beginning of 2008 was unsuccessful for the channel and STS began to push the closest competitor - the TNT channel. The reason for these failures was some failed series that did not live up to the expectations of the channel's management. The situation was saved mainly by original projects, the author of which was Vyacheslav Murugov (he switched from REN TV to STS in 2005 and until mid-2008 managed to launch such hits on the channel as the 6 frames sketch, drama Kadetstvo, sitcom " Daddy's daughters" and drama "Ranetki", which in the future influenced the decision of the shareholders to appoint him to the position of general director of STS).
TV channel under Murugov (2008-2014)
The initial period of leadership of the Murugov Canal was characterized by the preservation of many projects launched under Rodnyansky. So, in 2008, a rock band competition was held with participants aged 14 to 21 “STS lights a superstar. Ranetki-Mania "- the young Russian rock band Lunny Park from the city of Artyom (Primorsky Territory) became the winner of this musical TV show. STS continued to master the genre of infotainment (“Infomania”, “I want to believe!”), documentaries (“History of Russian show business”, “History of Russian humor”). However, over time, many of these projects ceased to be profitable. Back in 2009, they closed " Stories in Detail"(The updated version of 2011 -" Details. Recent History "- did not last long). At the beginning of 2012, the TV channel abandoned Infomania, and at the end of the year, not having lived a few months before its 10th anniversary, the game "The smartest" was closed:
“With the program“ The smartest ” ended in in a certain sense the era of Rodnyansky on STS. After all, it was he who came up with educational entertainment and promoted a number of projects that were connected not just with entertainment, but also with something new, useful, something interesting and surprising.
The decline in interest in such projects was a consequence of what is happening on present stage channel segmentation. All this has led to an increase in the channel's dependence on series and comedy shows. In 2009-2011, the successful "Show" Ural dumplings "" appeared on STS, the sketch "Give youth! ", Dramady "Margosha", sitcom "Voronins", mystical thriller "Closed School". In the direction of serials, Murugov begins to change his strategy over time: if adaptations previously prevailed, now the number of original formats has begun to increase, which has a positive impact on the ratings (for example, of the series launched in 2012-2013, the original “Eighties”, “Kitchen” became the most popular and "Youth").
It is worth noting that in 2012 Good Jokes ceased to exist, and soon Tatyana Lazareva and Mikhail Shats left the channel. The dismissal of TV presenters is probably due to their anti-Putin sentiments and opposition activities.
Vyacheslav Murugov corrected the target audience of STS: from 2009 to 2012, there is a transition from the concept of a family channel towards a family and youth channel, and on January 1, 2013, STS moves to a narrower target audience (from the age group "6-54" to viewers "10- 45 years") . The reason for this is that reorientation to a younger, solvent audience will interest advertisers, which will increase the price of advertising. In general, the change in the target audience for the TV channel turned out to be painful: if the share of the audience “All viewers over 4 years old” in 2009 was 9.0%, then in 2014 it was 5.9%. The fall began in mid-2010, and by the end of 2012, STS dropped from fourth to fifth place in ratings among national channels, losing to TNT. The decline was also associated with a decrease in the number of hits and the launch of some new projects of low quality.
New stage of development (2015 - present)
At the end of December 2014, Vyacheslav Murugov left the post of General Director of STS, on January 1, 2015 this position was taken by Elmira Makhmutova. The drop in ratings has stopped, however, there has not yet been a sharp increase in the channel's share and a significant recovery of lost positions by STS TV channel. On average, in 2015, in terms of the audience of Vse 4+, the channel was already in sixth place among Russian TV channels (yielding fifth place to Channel Five).
In March 2016, Elmira Makhmutova left the position of General Director.
Since September 1, 2016, Daria Legoni-Fialko has become the director of the STS TV channel.
Symbolism
Logos
| External images | |
|---|---|
| Logos | |
The TV channel has changed 7 logos, the current one is the 8th in a row.
- Initially, the logo was in the lower left corner, but since December 1, 1998, it has moved to the upper left corner.
- Since July 1, 2010, the logo has not been removed during commercials and channel announcements. Since December 26, 2012, the logo becomes translucent during advertising.
Slogans
Regional windows
Regional windows on STS (half an hour each): on weekdays - at 09:00, 13:30, 18:30 and 00:30 (except Friday); on weekends - at 08:30 and 16:00.
Film projects
STS participated in the filming and promotion of some Russian films:
Criticism
- During the hostage-taking in Beslan in September 2004, when terrorists seized a school in southern Russia, and more than 330 people died as a result of a shootout and explosions, another episode of Charmed was broadcast on STS. However, during the terrorist attack on Dubrovka on October 23-26, 2002, instead of traditional entertainment programs, STS aired an emergency newscast with Andrey Norkin. Recently, during the days of national mourning, the channel is trying to make adjustments to the air, replacing the most entertaining content.
- STS is positioned as an exclusively non-political channel, but, nevertheless, before the election of the President of the Russian Federation in early 2012, the sitcom "Eighties" was launched on the channel, which, according to the Communists of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, promoted a negative attitude towards the USSR, which caused their negative reaction .
- Sergey Mayorov, according to him, in the program "Stories in Detail" repeatedly faced censorship.
Broadcasting
Essential
via satellite
| Service | Plastic bag | Satellite(s) | Frequency/Polarization | Speed | FEC | Broadcast standard | Video compression format | Encoding ($) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STS (+0h) | NTV Plus | Express AMU1 36°E | 12341 L | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S (QPSK) | MPEG-2 | Viaccess 6.0 |
| STS (+0h) | Tricolor TV | Express AMU1 36°E | 12303L | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S (QPSK) | MPEG-2 | DRE-Crypt |
| STS (+0h) | Tricolor TV | Express AMU1 36°E | 12111 L | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | DRE-Crypt |
| STS (+0h) | Express AM7 40°E | 3685 L | 15284 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+0h) | Express AM6 53°E | 3685 L | 15284 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+0h) | Yamal 402 54.9°E | 11345V | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | BISS | |
| STS (+0h) | Yamal 402 54.9°E | 12694V | 15282 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+0h) | Active TV | Intelsat 904 60°E | 11635V | 29700 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA |
| STS (+0h) | MTS TV | ABS 2 75°E | 11853V | 45000 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Verimatrix/Irdeto 2 |
| STS (+0h) | Yamal 402 54.9°E | 11345V | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | BISS | |
| STS (+2h) | Tricolor TV | Eutelsat 36B 36°E | 12054 R | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | DRE-Crypt |
| STS (+2h) | Express AM7 40°E | 3635 R | 15280 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+2h) | MTS TV | ABS 2 75°E | 11793V | 45000 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Verimatrix/Irdeto 2 |
| STS (+4h) | Tricolor TV Siberia | Express AT-1 56°E | 12226L | 27500 | 3/4 | DVB-S (QPSK) | MPEG-4 | DRE-Crypt |
| STS (+4h) | NTV Plus Vostok | Express AT-1 56°E | 12399 R | 27500 | 5/6 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Viaccess 5.0 |
| STS (+4h) | Intelsat 902 62°E | 11555H | 28900 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Verimatrix | |
| STS (+4h) | MTS TV | ABS 2 75°E | 11793V | 45000 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Verimatrix/Irdeto 2 |
| STS (+4h) | Yamal 401 90°E | 4126 R | 15284 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+4h) | Yamal 401 90°E | 11385H | 30000 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | BISS | |
| STS (+7h) | MTS TV | ABS 2 75°E | 11793V | 45000 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Verimatrix/Irdeto 2 |
| STS (+7h) | Yamal 401 90°E | 4046 L | 15284 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+7h) | Yamal 401 90°E | 4144 L | 15284 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | FTA | |
| STS (+7h) | Yamal 401 90°E | 11265H | 30000 | 3/4 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | BISS | |
| STS (+7h) | Telstar 18 138°E | 12629H | 43200 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | Nagravision | |
| STS (+7h) | Eastern Express | Express AM5 140°E | 10981V | 44948 | 5/6 | DVB-S (QPSK) | MPEG-2 | Irdeto 2/Conax |
| STS (+7h) | Express AM5 140°E | 11530H | 22250 | 2/3 | DVB-S2 (8PSK) | MPEG-4 | BISS |
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Notes
Links
- on the official website of the STS Media holding
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An excerpt characterizing STS
Drone sighed without answering.“If you tell them to, they will leave,” he said.
“No, no, I will go to them,” said Princess Mary
Despite Dunyasha's and the nurse's dissuades, Princess Mary went out onto the porch. Dron, Dunyasha, the nurse, and Mikhail Ivanovich followed her. “They probably think that I am offering them bread so that they remain in their places, and I myself will leave, leaving them to the mercy of the French,” thought Princess Mary. - I will promise them a month in an apartment near Moscow; I am sure that Andre would have done even more in my place, ”she thought, approaching the crowd in the pasture near the barn at dusk.
The crowd, crowding together, began to stir, and hats were quickly taken off. Princess Mary, lowering her eyes and tangling her feet in her dress, went close to them. So many varied old and young eyes were fixed on her and there were so many different faces that Princess Mary did not see a single face and, feeling the need to suddenly talk to everyone, did not know what to do. But again, the realization that she was the representative of her father and brother gave her strength, and she boldly began her speech.
“I am very glad that you have come,” Princess Marya began, without raising her eyes and feeling how quickly and strongly her heart was beating. “Dronushka told me that the war ruined you. This is our common grief, and I will spare nothing to help you. I am going myself, because it is already dangerous here and the enemy is close ... because ... I give you everything, my friends, and I ask you to take everything, all our bread, so that you do not have a need. And if you were told that I am giving you bread so that you stay here, then this is not true. On the contrary, I ask you to leave with all your property to our suburban area, and there I take upon myself and promise you that you will not be in need. You will be given houses and bread. The princess stopped. Only sighs could be heard in the crowd.
“I am not doing this on my own,” the princess continued, “I am doing this in the name of my late father, who was a good master to you, and for my brother and his son.
She stopped again. No one interrupted her silence.
- Woe is our common, and we will divide everything in half. Everything that is mine is yours,” she said, looking around at the faces that stood before her.
All eyes looked at her with the same expression, the meaning of which she could not understand. Whether it was curiosity, devotion, gratitude, or fear and distrust, the expression on all faces was the same.
“Many are pleased with your grace, only we don’t have to take the master’s bread,” said a voice from behind.
- Yes, why? - said the princess.
No one answered, and Princess Mary, looking around the crowd, noticed that now all the eyes she met immediately dropped.
- Why don't you want to? she asked again.
Nobody answered.
Princess Marya felt heavy from this silence; she tried to catch someone's gaze.
- Why don't you speak? - the princess turned to the old old man, who, leaning on a stick, stood in front of her. Tell me if you think you need anything else. I'll do anything," she said, catching his eye. But he, as if angry at this, lowered his head completely and said:
- Why agree, we do not need bread.
- Well, should we quit everything? Do not agree. Disagree... There is no our consent. We pity you, but there is no our consent. Go on your own, alone…” was heard in the crowd from different sides. And again the same expression appeared on all the faces of this crowd, and now it was probably no longer an expression of curiosity and gratitude, but an expression of embittered determination.
“Yes, you didn’t understand, right,” said Princess Marya with a sad smile. Why don't you want to go? I promise to accommodate you, feed you. And here the enemy will ruin you ...
But her voice was drowned out by the voices of the crowd.
- There is no our consent, let them ruin! We do not take your bread, there is no our consent!
Princess Mary tried again to catch someone's gaze from the crowd, but not a single glance was directed at her; her eyes obviously avoided her. She felt strange and uncomfortable.
“Look, she taught me cleverly, follow her to the fortress!” Ruin the houses and into bondage and go. How! I'll give you bread! voices were heard in the crowd.
Princess Mary, lowering her head, left the circle and went into the house. Having repeated the order to Dron that there should be horses for departure tomorrow, she went to her room and was left alone with her thoughts.
For a long time that night Princess Marya sat at the open window in her room, listening to the sounds of peasants talking from the village, but she did not think about them. She felt that no matter how much she thought about them, she could not understand them. She kept thinking about one thing - about her grief, which now, after the break made by worries about the present, has already become past for her. She could now remember, she could cry and she could pray. As the sun went down, the wind died down. The night was calm and cool. At twelve o'clock the voices began to subside, a rooster crowed, the full moon began to emerge from behind the linden trees, a fresh, white dew mist rose, and silence reigned over the village and over the house.
One after another, she imagined pictures of the close past - illness and the last moments of her father. And with sad joy she now dwelled on these images, driving away from herself with horror only one last idea of his death, which - she felt - she was unable to contemplate even in her imagination at this quiet and mysterious hour of the night. And these pictures appeared to her with such clarity and in such detail that they seemed to her either reality, or the past, or the future.
Then she vividly imagined the moment when he had a stroke and he was being dragged from the garden in the Bald Mountains by the arms and he was muttering something in an impotent tongue, twitching his gray eyebrows and looking restlessly and timidly at her.
“He wanted to tell me even then what he told me on the day of his death,” she thought. “He always thought what he said to me.” And now she remembered with all the details that night in the Bald Mountains on the eve of the blow that happened to him, when Princess Mary, anticipating trouble, stayed with him against his will. She did not sleep and went downstairs on tiptoe at night and, going to the door to the flower room, where her father spent the night that night, she listened to his voice. He was saying something to Tikhon in an exhausted, tired voice. He seemed to want to talk. "Why didn't he call me? Why didn't he allow me to be here in Tikhon's place? thought then and now Princess Marya. - He will never tell anyone now all that was in his soul. This moment will never return for him and for me when he would say everything that he wanted to express, and I, and not Tikhon, would listen and understand him. Why didn't I come into the room then? she thought. “Perhaps he would have told me then what he said on the day of his death. Even then, in a conversation with Tikhon, he asked twice about me. He wanted to see me, and I was standing there, outside the door. He was sad, it was hard to talk with Tikhon, who did not understand him. I remember how he spoke to him about Liza, as if alive - he forgot that she was dead, and Tikhon reminded him that she was no longer there, and he shouted: "Fool." It was hard for him. I heard from behind the door how, groaning, he lay down on the bed and shouted loudly: “My God! Why didn’t I go up then? What would he do to me? What would I lose? Or maybe then he would have consoled himself, he would have said this word to me. And Princess Marya uttered aloud that affectionate word that he had spoken to her on the day of his death. “Dude she nka! - Princess Marya repeated this word and sobbed tears that relieved her soul. She saw his face in front of her now. And not the face she had known since she could remember, and which she had always seen from afar; and that face - timid and weak, which on the last day, bending down to his mouth in order to hear what he was saying, for the first time examined closely with all its wrinkles and details.
"Darling," she repeated.
What was he thinking when he said that word? What does he think now? - suddenly a question came to her, and in response to this she saw him in front of her with the expression on his face that he had in the coffin on his face tied with a white handkerchief. And the horror that seized her when she touched him and became convinced that it was not only not him, but something mysterious and repulsive, seized her even now. She wanted to think about something else, she wanted to pray, and there was nothing she could do. She gazed with large open eyes at the moonlight and shadows, every second she expected to see his dead face, and she felt that the silence that stood over the house and in the house chained her.
- Dunyasha! she whispered. - Dunyasha! she cried in a wild voice and, breaking out of the silence, ran to the girls' room, towards the nanny and girls running towards her.
On August 17, Rostov and Ilyin, accompanied by Lavrushka and the escort hussar, who had just returned from captivity, from their Yankovo camp, fifteen miles from Bogucharov, went riding - to try a new horse bought by Ilyin and find out if there is hay in the villages.
Bogucharovo had been between the two enemy armies for the last three days, so that the Russian rearguard could just as easily enter there as the French avant-garde, and therefore Rostov, as a caring squadron commander, wanted to take advantage of the provisions that remained in Bogucharov before the French.
Rostov and Ilyin were in the most cheerful mood. On the way to Bogucharovo, to the princely estate with a manor, where they hoped to find a large household and pretty girls, they first asked Lavrushka about Napoleon and laughed at his stories, then they drove, trying Ilyin's horse.
Rostov did not know and did not think that this village to which he was going was the estate of that same Bolkonsky, who was his sister's fiancé.
Rostov and Ilyin let the horses out for the last time in the cart in front of Bogucharov, and Rostov, having overtaken Ilyin, was the first to jump into the street of the village of Bogucharov.
“You took it ahead,” said Ilyin, flushed.
“Yes, everything is forward, and forward in the meadow, and here,” answered Rostov, stroking his soaring bottom with his hand.
“And I’m in French, Your Excellency,” Lavrushka said from behind, calling his draft horse French, “I would have overtaken, but I just didn’t want to shame.
They walked up to the barn, where a large crowd of peasants was standing.
Some peasants took off their hats, some, without taking off their hats, looked at the approachers. Two long old peasants, with wrinkled faces and sparse beards, came out of the tavern and with smiles, swaying and singing some awkward song, approached the officers.
- Well done! - said, laughing, Rostov. - What, do you have hay?
“And the same ones…” said Ilyin.
- Weigh ... oo ... oooh ... barking demon ... demon ... - the men sang with happy smiles.
One peasant left the crowd and approached Rostov.
- Which one will you be? - he asked.
“French,” answered Ilyin, laughing. "That's Napoleon himself," he said, pointing to Lavrushka.
- So, the Russians will be? the man asked.
- How much of your power is there? asked another small man, approaching them.
“Many, many,” answered Rostov. - Yes, what are you gathered here for? he added. Holiday, huh?
“The old men have gathered, on a worldly matter,” answered the peasant, moving away from him.
At this time, two women and a man in a white hat appeared on the road from the manor house, walking towards the officers.
- In my pink, mind not beating! said Ilyin, noticing Dunyasha resolutely advancing towards him.
Ours will be! Lavrushka said with a wink.
- What, my beauty, do you need? - said Ilyin, smiling.
- The princess was ordered to find out what regiment you are and your names?
- This is Count Rostov, squadron commander, and I am your obedient servant.
- Be ... se ... e ... du ... shka! sang the drunk peasant, smiling happily and looking at Ilyin, who was talking to the girl. Following Dunyasha, Alpatych approached Rostov, taking off his hat from a distance.
“I dare to disturb, your honor,” he said with deference, but with relative disdain for the youth of this officer, and putting his hand in his bosom. “My lady, the daughter of General-in-Chief Prince Nikolai Andreevich Bolkonsky, who died this fifteenth day, being in difficulty because of the ignorance of these people,” he pointed to the peasants, “asks you to come in ... if you don’t mind,” Alpatych said with a sad smile, “move off a few, otherwise it’s not so convenient when ... - Alpatych pointed to two men who were rushing around him from behind, like horseflies near a horse.
- Ah! .. Alpatych ... Huh? Yakov Alpatych!.. Important! sorry for Christ. Important! Huh? .. - said the men, smiling happily at him. Rostov looked at the drunken old men and smiled.
“Or maybe that’s a consolation to Your Excellency?” - said Yakov Alpatych with a sedate look, pointing at the old people with his hand not in his bosom.
“No, there is little consolation here,” said Rostov, and drove off. - What's the matter? - he asked.
- I dare to report to your excellency that the rude people here do not want to let the lady out of the estate and threaten to disown the horses, so that everything is packed in the morning and her excellency cannot leave.
- Can't be! cried Rostov.
“I have the honor to report to you the real truth,” Alpatych repeated.
Rostov got off the horse and, handing it over to the orderly, went with Alpatych to the house, asking him about the details of the case. Indeed, yesterday's offer of bread by the princess to the peasants, her explanation with Dron and with the gathering spoiled the matter so much that Dron finally handed over the keys, joined the peasants and did not appear at the request of Alpatych, and that in the morning, when the princess ordered to lay the mortgage in order to go, the peasants came out in a large crowd to the barn and sent to say that they would not let the princess out of the village, that there was an order not to be taken out, and they would unharness the horses. Alpatych went out to them, advising them, but they answered him (Karp spoke the most; Dron did not show up from the crowd) that the princess could not be released, that there was an order for that; but that let the princess remain, and they will serve her as before and obey her in everything.
At that moment, when Rostov and Ilyin galloped along the road, Princess Marya, in spite of Alpatych's dissuade, the nanny and the girls, ordered to mortgage and wanted to go; but, seeing the galloping cavalrymen, they took them for the French, the coachmen fled, and the wailing of women arose in the house.
- Father! native father! God has sent you, - tender voices said, while Rostov passed through the hall.
Princess Mary, lost and powerless, sat in the hall, while Rostov was brought in to her. She did not understand who he was, and why he was, and what would happen to her. Seeing his Russian face, and by his entrance and the first words spoken, recognizing him as a man of her circle, she looked at him with her deep and radiant gaze and began to speak in a voice that broke and trembled with excitement. Rostov immediately imagined something romantic in this meeting. “Defenseless, heartbroken girl, alone, left to the mercy of rude, rebellious men! And what a strange fate pushed me here! thought Rostov, listening to her and looking at her. - And what meekness, nobility in her features and expression! he thought as he listened to her timid story.
When she started talking about how it all happened the day after her father's funeral, her voice trembled. She turned away and then, as if afraid that Rostov would not take her words for a desire to pity him, looked at him inquiringly and frightened. Rostov had tears in his eyes. Princess Mary noticed this and looked gratefully at Rostov with that radiant look of hers that made her forget the ugliness of her face.
“I can’t express, princess, how happy I am that I accidentally drove here and will be able to show you my readiness,” said Rostov, getting up. - If you please go, and I answer you with my honor that not a single person will dare to make trouble for you if you only allow me to escort you, - and, bowing respectfully, as they bow to the ladies of royal blood, he went to the door.
By the respectfulness of his tone, Rostov seemed to show that, despite the fact that he would consider his acquaintance with her to be happiness, he did not want to use the opportunity of her misfortune to get closer to her.
Princess Marya understood and appreciated this tone.
“I am very, very grateful to you,” the princess told him in French, “but I hope that it was all just a misunderstanding and that no one is to blame for that. The princess suddenly burst into tears. “Excuse me,” she said.
Rostov, frowning, bowed deeply once more and left the room.
- Well, honey? No, brother, my pink charm, and Dunyasha's name is ... - But, looking at Rostov's face, Ilyin fell silent. He saw that his hero and commander were in a completely different line of thought.
Rostov looked angrily at Ilyin and, without answering him, quickly walked towards the village.
- I'll show them, I'll ask them, the robbers! he said to himself.
Alpatych with a floating step, so as not to run, barely caught up with Rostov at a trot.
- What decision would you like to make? he said, catching up with him.
Rostov stopped and, clenching his fists, suddenly moved menacingly towards Alpatych.
– Decision? What's the solution? Old bastard! he shouted at him. - What were you watching? A? The men are rioting, and you can't handle it? You yourself are a traitor. I know you, I'll skin everyone ... - And, as if afraid to waste his ardor in vain, he left Alpatych and quickly went forward. Alpatych, suppressing the feeling of insult, kept up with Rostov with a floating step and continued to tell him his thoughts. He said that the peasants were stagnant, that at the present moment it was imprudent to oppose them without having a military team, that it would not be better to send for a team first.
“I will give them a military command ... I will oppose them,” Nikolai said senselessly, choking on unreasonable animal malice and the need to vent this anger. Not realizing what he would do, unconsciously, with a quick, decisive step, he moved towards the crowd. And the closer he moved to her, the more Alpatych felt that his imprudent act could produce good results. The peasants of the crowd felt the same way, looking at his quick and firm gait and his determined, frowning face.
After the hussars entered the village and Rostov went to the princess, confusion and discord occurred in the crowd. Some peasants began to say that these newcomers were Russians and no matter how offended they were by not letting the young lady out. Drone was of the same opinion; but as soon as he expressed it, Karp and other peasants attacked the former headman.
- How many years have you eaten the world? Karp shouted at him. - You don't care! You will dig a little egg, take it away, what do you want, ruin our houses, or not?
- It is said that there should be order, no one should go out of the houses, so as not to take out a blue gunpowder - that's it! shouted another.
“There was a queue for your son, and you must have felt sorry for your baldness,” the little old man suddenly spoke quickly, attacking Dron, “but he shaved my Vanka. Oh, let's die!
- Then we will die!
“I am not a refuser from the world,” said Dron.
- That’s not a refuser, he has grown a belly! ..
Two long men were talking. As soon as Rostov, accompanied by Ilyin, Lavrushka and Alpatych, approached the crowd, Karp, putting his fingers behind his sash, smiling slightly, stepped forward. The drone, on the contrary, went into the back rows, and the crowd moved closer.
- Hey! who is your elder here? - shouted Rostov, quickly approaching the crowd.
- Is that the elder? What do you want? .. – asked Karp. But before he had time to finish, his hat fell off him and his head jerked to one side from a strong blow.
- Hats off, traitors! Rostov's full-blooded voice shouted. - Where is the elder? he shouted in a furious voice.
“The headman, the headman is calling ... Dron Zakharych, you,” hurriedly submissive voices were heard somewhere, and hats began to be removed from their heads.
“We can’t rebel, we observe the rules,” said Karp, and at the same moment several voices from behind suddenly began to speak:
- As the old men murmured, there are a lot of you bosses ...
- Talk? .. Riot! .. Robbers! Traitors! Rostov yelled senselessly, in a voice not his own, grabbing Karp by Yurot. - Knit him, knit him! he shouted, although there was no one to knit him, except for Lavrushka and Alpatych.
Lavrushka, however, ran up to Karp and grabbed him by the arms from behind.
- Will you order ours from under the mountain to call? he shouted.
Alpatych turned to the peasants, calling two by name to knit Karp. The men obediently left the crowd and began to unbelt.
- Where is the elder? shouted Rostov.
Drone, with a frown and pale face, stepped out of the crowd.
- Are you an elder? Knit, Lavrushka! - shouted Rostov, as if this order could not meet obstacles. And indeed, two more peasants began to knit Dron, who, as if helping them, took off his kushan and gave it to them.
- And you all listen to me, - Rostov turned to the peasants: - Now the march to the houses, and so that I don’t hear your voice.
“Well, we didn’t make any offense. We are just being stupid. They’ve only done nonsense… I told you it was disorder,” voices were heard reproaching each other.
“So I told you,” Alpatych said, coming into his own. - It's not good, guys!
“Our stupidity, Yakov Alpatych,” voices answered, and the crowd immediately began to disperse and scatter around the village.
The bound two peasants were taken to the manor's yard. Two drunk men followed them.
- Oh, I'll look at you! - said one of them, referring to Karp.
“Is it possible to speak to gentlemen like that?” What did you think?
“Fool,” another confirmed, “really, fool!”
Two hours later the carts were in the courtyard of Bogucharov's house. The peasants were eagerly carrying out and stacking the master's things on the carts, and Dron, at the request of Princess Mary, released from the locker where he was locked up, standing in the yard, disposed of the peasants.
“Don’t put it down so badly,” one of the peasants said, A tall man with a round smiling face, accepting the casket from the hands of the maid. She's worth the money too. Why are you throwing it like that or half a rope - and it will rub. I don't like that. And to be honest, according to the law. That's how it is under the matting, but cover it with a curtain, that's important. Love!
“Look for books, books,” said another peasant, who was carrying out the library cabinets of Prince Andrei. - You do not cling! And it’s heavy, guys, the books are healthy!
- Yes, they wrote, they didn’t walk! - a tall chubby man said with a significant wink, pointing to the thick lexicons lying on top.
Rostov, not wanting to impose his acquaintance on the princess, did not go to her, but remained in the village, waiting for her to leave. Having waited for Princess Mary's carriages to leave the house, Rostov mounted on horseback and accompanied her on horseback to the path occupied by our troops, twelve miles from Bogucharov. In Jankovo, at the inn, he took leave of her respectfully, for the first time allowing himself to kiss her hand.
“You’re not ashamed,” blushing, he answered Princess Marya to the expression of gratitude for her salvation (as she called his act), “every guard would have done the same. If we only had to fight with the peasants, we would not let the enemy go so far, ”he said, ashamed of something and trying to change the conversation. “I am only happy to have had the opportunity to meet you. Farewell, princess, I wish you happiness and consolation and wish to meet you under happier conditions. If you don't want to make me blush, please don't thank me.
But the princess, if she did not thank him more with words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, beaming with gratitude and tenderness. She couldn't believe him, that she had nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, for her it was undoubtedly that if he were not there, then she probably would have to die from both the rebels and the French; that he, in order to save her, exposed himself to the most obvious and terrible dangers; and even more undoubted was the fact that he was a man with a lofty and noble soul, who knew how to understand her position and grief. His kind and honest eyes, with tears coming out of them, while she herself, crying, spoke to him about her loss, did not go out of her imagination.
When she said goodbye to him and was left alone, Princess Mary suddenly felt tears in her eyes, and then, not for the first time, she asked herself a strange question: does she love him?
On the way further to Moscow, despite the fact that the situation of the princess was not joyful, Dunyasha, who was traveling with her in a carriage, noticed more than once that the princess, leaning out of the window of the carriage, smiled joyfully and sadly at something.
“Well, what if I did love him? thought Princess Mary.
No matter how ashamed she was to admit to herself that she was the first to love a man who, perhaps, would never love her, she consoled herself with the thought that no one would ever know this and that it would not be her fault if for the rest of her life, no one talking about loving the one she loved for the first and last time.
Sometimes she remembered his views, his participation, his words, and it seemed to her that happiness was not impossible. And then Dunyasha noticed that she, smiling, was looking out the window of the carriage.
“And he should have come to Bogucharovo, and at that very moment! thought Princess Mary. - And it was necessary for his sister to refuse Prince Andrei! - And in all this, Princess Mary saw the will of providence.
The impression made on Rostov by Princess Marya was very pleasant. When he thought about her, he felt merry, and when his comrades, having learned about the adventure that had happened with him in Bogucharov, joked to him that he, having gone for hay, had picked up one of the richest brides in Russia, Rostov became angry. He was angry precisely because the idea of marrying a pleasant for him, meek Princess Marya with a huge fortune more than once came to his mind against his will. For himself, Nikolai could not wish for a better wife than Princess Mary: marrying her would make the Countess, his mother, happy, and improve his father’s affairs; and even—Nikolai felt it—would have made Princess Marya happy. But Sonya? And this word? And this made Rostov angry when they joked about Princess Bolkonskaya.
Having taken command of the armies, Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrei and sent him an order to arrive at the main apartment.
Prince Andrei arrived in Tsarevo Zaimishche on the very day and at the very time of the day when Kutuzov was making the first review of the troops. Prince Andrei stopped in the village near the priest's house, where the commander-in-chief's carriage was stationed, and sat down on a bench at the gate, waiting for the Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. On the field outside the village, one could hear the sounds of regimental music, then the roar of huge amount voices shouting “hurrah! to the new commander in chief. Immediately at the gate, about ten paces from Prince Andrei, taking advantage of the absence of the prince and the fine weather, stood two batmen, a courier and a butler. Blackish, overgrown with mustaches and sideburns, a little hussar lieutenant colonel rode up to the gate and, looking at Prince Andrei, asked: is the brightest here and will he be soon?
Prince Andrei said that he did not belong to the headquarters of his Serene Highness and was also a visitor. The hussar lieutenant colonel turned to the well-dressed batman, and the batman of the commander-in-chief said to him with that special contempt with which the batmen of the commanders-in-chief speak to the officers:
- What, brightest? It must be now. You that?
The hussar lieutenant colonel grinned into his mustache at the orderly, got off the horse, gave it to the messenger and went up to Bolkonsky, bowing slightly to him. Bolkonsky stood aside on the bench. The hussar lieutenant-colonel sat down beside him.
Are you also waiting for the commander-in-chief? said the hussar lieutenant colonel. - Govog "yat, accessible to everyone, thank God. Otherwise, trouble with sausages! Nedag" om Yeg "molov in the Germans pg" settled down. Tepeg "maybe and g" Russian talk "it will be possible. Otherwise, Cheg" does not know what they were doing. Everyone retreated, everyone retreated. Did you do the hike? - he asked.
- I had the pleasure, - answered Prince Andrei, - not only to participate in the retreat, but also to lose in this retreat everything that he had dear, not to mention the estates and home... a father who died of grief. I am from Smolensk.
- And? .. Are you Prince Bolkonsky? It’s very cool to meet you: Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known by the name of Vaska, Denisov said, shaking Prince Andrei’s hand and peering into Bolkonsky’s face with especially kind attention. Yes, I heard, ”he said sympathetically and, after a pause, continued : - Here is the Scythian war. This is all hog "osho, but not for those who puff with their sides. And you are Prince Andg "she Bolkonsky?" He shook his head. "Very hell, prince, very hell to meet you," he added again with a sad smile, shaking his hand.
Prince Andrei knew Denisov from Natasha's stories about her first fiancé. This recollection both sweetly and painfully carried him now to those painful sensations that he had not thought about for a long time, but which nevertheless were in his soul. Recently, there have been so many other and such serious impressions as leaving Smolensk, his arrival in the Bald Mountains, recently known about the death of his father - so many sensations were experienced by him that these memories had not come to him for a long time and, when they did, had no effect on him. him with the same strength. And for Denisov, the series of memories that Bolkonsky’s name evoked was the distant, poetic past, when, after dinner and Natasha’s singing, without knowing how, he proposed to a fifteen-year-old girl. He smiled at the memories of that time and his love for Natasha, and immediately turned to what passionately and exclusively now occupied him. This was the campaign plan he had come up with while serving in the outposts during the retreat. He presented this plan to Barclay de Tolly and now intended to present it to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of operations was too long and that instead of, or at the same time, acting from the front, blocking the way for the French, it was necessary to act on their messages. He began to explain his plan to Prince Andrei.