In October 2011, the television news channel Kommersant TV was launched. Its feature has been broadcasting without leading - all information is fed through photographs, illustrations and changing text.
In early June 2012, personnel shifts took place in the Kommersant media holding. Demyan Kudryavtsev, who was part of the holding’s management for more than 10 years, left the post of general director. Its place was taken by the general director of the UTV television holding Dmitry Sergeev. At the same time, the board of directors was headed by the general director of Megafon, controlled by Alisher Usmanov, Ivan Tavrin.
Already at the end of June, the new leadership announced the suspension of the Kommersant TV project. According to Dmitry Sergeyev, the channel in the form in which it was broadcast is economically inefficient and can never reach self-sufficiency. Significant costs for maintaining broadcasting and broadcasting a television signal over cable networks forced the new management, which is faced with the task of optimizing the business in the holding, and suspending broadcasting.
The Kommersant TV channel and the Kommersant FM radio station are the brainchild of the former general director Demyan Kudryavtsev, who did not reach the planned operating profit, and the publishing house brings the lion's share of the media holding's income - 80%.
However, Dmitry Sergeyev did not say that the channel was closed forever, but hinted that a new model of its development would be worked out, perhaps there would be a return to traditional presenters, etc.
But, most likely, the most probable form of the channel’s existence, at least at the initial stage, will be Internet broadcasting. According to Dmitry Sergeyev, the holding’s management is currently working on a new information and economic concept, and within its framework a decision will be made to resume broadcasting on the Internet.
Kommersant TV is not the first media holding project to be optimized. Even earlier, the Russian version of Citizen K. magazine was closed. In the same way, the leadership of the structure explained this step as commercial reasons.
