CNBC Europe to Provide Business News to Russian Broadcaster

CNBC Europe, the leading pan-European real time business and financial TV channel, has agreed to provide programming to RBC-TV, the Russian business and news TV channel being launched by RosBusinessConsulting, under a new affiliate relationship. The new channel, based in Moscow, is due to go on air from September 2003.

The terms of the two year agreement will license RBC-TV to transmit selected CNBC Europe business programming, under the CNBC Europe brand and will involve additional operational co-operation. RBC-TV has an agreement with CNN to provide international news coverage.

Rick Cotton, President and Managing Director of CNBC Europe, says: "The Russian market is becoming an increasingly important and visible player in the global economy. We're delighted to be working with a partner that will bring regional and global information to a market which is growing rapidly as a centre for business and commerce. We're looking forward to supporting RBC-TV as a source of important business information at a crucial time in the economic development of the country."

CNBC Europe says that this new initiative with RBC-TV is part of its strategy to develop affiliate local language services to complement its pan-European channel which currently reaches more than 80 million homes, more than 350,000 hotel rooms, and thousands of financial and commercial offices and business locations across Europe. CNBC Europe already has affiliate channels in Italy (CFN-CNBC), Turkey (CNBC-E), and the Middle East (CNBC Arabiya).

The CNBC Europe programming on RBC-TV will include items from its daily schedule of fast-paced market coverage and analysis from Europe, Asia and the US, as well as use of its weekly ½ hour special programmes tackling in-depth business issues, including Capital Ideas and Agenda Europe.

Artyom Inyutin, General Director of RBC-TV, says: "The launch of RBC-TV's business and news channel comes at an important time in the economic development of the region. Our relationship with CNBC Europe provides the quality of broadcast content we require and I'm confident that we will be able to deliver the information our viewers in the business and investment community demand"

CNBC Europe is the only pan-European real-time financial and business channel dedicated to the European CEOs and senior corporate executives, the European financial services industry & the European investor. Today the channel is available in over 83 million homes, 1,400 banks and financial institutions and 340,000 4&5 star hotel rooms throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Produced and broadcast from its studios in London, CNBC Europe is a service of Dow Jones and NBC. In addition to The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com), publishes Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers, providing business and financial news around the world.

NBC is the broadcasting unit of General Electric Company (GE). NBC also offers CNBC Europe interactive links to MSNBC, the NBC joint venture with Microsoft, providing 24-hour information via television and the Internet.

CNBC Europe is able to draw on the extensive resources of Dow Jones and NBC news contacts in 25 European cities, as well as its own correspondents and market reporters in Frankfurt, Paris, Milan and Brussels.

About RBC-TV

RBC-TV is the first and the only dedicated Russian-language business television channel in Russia. During its daily broadcasting RBC-TV will provide coverage of both the Russian and international financial markets, combining both news and analytical broadcasting. The channel will feature economic, financial and political news from Russia and other countries, analytical reviews, expert forecasts and commentaries, interviews with top politicians and businessmen, business press reviews, and special programs on topical problems of businesses in Russia.

RBC-TV will broadcast via direct connecting cable and satellite networks in Moscow, to subscribers of NTV+, Kosmos TV, Comcor-TV, and Divo-TV, and to clients of regional cable networks, as well as via the Internet (top news and videos will be placed on the www.rbctv.ru web-site), and regional television networks in the 12 largest cities of Russia with population over 1 million of residents.

RBC-TV is an independent division within the RosBusinessConsulting (RBC) group. The RBC group also includes RIA RosBusinessConsulting (an information agency operating the www.rbc.ru business information website), RBC SOFT (IT solutions) and RBC Center (an advertising agency).

The RBC group is a leader on the Russian market for business information, offering its audience the largest volume of financial news from Russia, the CIS and Western countries through its web resources. RBC has the largest business audience among other domestic mass media, with more than 1.5 million unique users per month for www.rbc.ru, and over 4 million unique users including all RBC Internet properties.

Mass media and information technologies are the two complementary business areas of RBC.

The mass media business segment includes RIA RosBusinessConsulting (operating www.rbc.ru), RBC-TV, the analytical internet newspaper RBC-daily, other Internet-based information resources, such as Ytro, Turist.ru, Cnews, AutoNews, Sport.rbc.ru, Internet press conferences and annual international business forums.

The IT business segment (RBC SOFT) offers software products, marketing research, system integration solutions and mass solutions, such as hosting, SSL certificates and e-commerce.

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