The agreement between Russian state-owned broadcaster VGTRK and Gazprom Media Holding which will lead to the formation of a new state-backed sports broadcaster also includes the country’s most popular sports website, Sportbox.ru, according to Kommersant.
The Russian newspaper, citing a top official close to the deal and a source familiar to Gazprom Media, said Sportbox will become a key resource in the online portfolio of the new Sport 360 venture.
Founded in 2007, Sportbox provides some sports programming broadcast by the Russia 2 and Sport 1 television channels free of charge.
It is managed by a separate company, Sportboks, which Gazprom Media will acquire.
Data produced by TNS Russia said the site had a monthly audience of 4.31m in the 12-64 age bracket in May this year.
Earlier this week it emerged that VGTRK has been instructed by President Vladimir Putin to hand over the frequency utilised by its Russia 2 channel to Gazprom Media by August 1, ahead of the launch of Sport 360 one month later.
Gazprom Media Holding is a division of state-owned energy company Gazprom. The deal transferring the Russia 2 frequency to Gazprom Media is understood to be worth R9.3bn (€150m/$168m). It will include infrastructure VGTRK utilises to broadcast sporting events.