MOSCOW, April 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian energy giant Gazprom's media arm, which already controls a huge media empire, said Thursday it was in talks with the owners of almost all the country's leading media outlets.
"Gazprom Media is holding negotiations with almost all major publishing houses and other media outlets in this country. We are developing vibrantly, and can afford it," spokeswoman Irina Zenkova said.
She said the state-owned company was negotiating to buy popular national daily Komsomolskaya Pravda from its core shareholder, publishing house Prof Media, but dismissed media reports that a deal had been reached.
"The deal has not come through. We negotiate with almost all major publishing houses on all sorts of issues. But this does not mean we intend to buy up Russia's entire media business," she said.
Following last year's purchase of a 50.19% stake in Izvestia daily, Gazprom Media CEO Nikolai Senkevich said the company was "effectively closing the last segment of the [media] market in which it has not been present until now."
Before the acquisition, Gazprom Media bought a controlling interest in Sem Dnei, the publisher of an eponymous weekly TV guide and of several other magazines.
The holding controls television networks NTV and TNT, radio broadcasters such as Ekho Moskvy, NEXT, and Troika, and film production company NTV Kino. It is also the owner of two movie theaters, Moscow-based Oktyabr and Kristall-Palas in St. Petersburg.
