RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Overview

There is a limited local market for many specialty broadcasting and production services in the countries in which we operate; many of these services are provided by parties known to be connected to our local shareholders, members of our management and board of directors or our equity investees.  Transactions involving related parties cannot be presumed to be carried out on an arm’s-length basis, as the requisite conditions of competitive, free-market dealings may not exist.  We continue to review all of these arrangements.

Related Party Groups

We consider our related parties to be those shareholders who have direct control and/or influence and other parties that can significantly influence management as well as our officers and directors; a “connected” party is one in relation to whom we are aware of the existence of a family or business connection to a shareholder, director or officer. We have identified transactions with individuals or entities associated with the following individuals or entities as material related party transactions: Adrian Sarbu, our President and Chief Executive Officer, a member of our Board of Directors and beneficial owner of approximately 4.3% of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock; and Time Warner Inc. (“Time Warner”), who is represented on our Board of Directors and is the beneficial owner of approximately 34.4% of our outstanding shares of Class A common stock and Class B common stock.

Related Party Transactions

Adrian Sarbu

	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Purchases of programming and services	$	4,812	$	5,174	$	36,900
Sales	1,197		852		900

	As at December 31,
	2011		2010
Accounts payable	$	512	$	896
Accounts receivable	765		583

In addition, on January 31, 2011, we completed the acquisition of 100.0% of Pro Digital S.R.L. (“Pro Digital”), a company controlled by Adrian Sarbu, on a debt-free basis for cash consideration of EUR 0.7 million (approximately US$ 0.9 million at the date of acquisition) (see Note 3, “Acquisitions”).

Time Warner

	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Purchases of programming	$	57,196	$	33,566	$	61,800
Sales	198		40		—

	As at December 31,
	2011		2010
Accounts payable	$	78,016	$	50,490
Accounts receivable	159		46

Ronald S. Lauder

We have paid approximately US$ 2.9 million, including approximately US$ 0.4 million in 2010, of legal fees incurred by Ronald S. Lauder in connection with the negotiation and implementation of the investment by Time Warner Media Holding B.V. in CME Ltd. in May 2009, which included the dissolution of the CME Holdco L.P. partnership between Mr. Lauder and an affiliate of Apax Partners. In the agreements governing this investment, we had undertaken to pay the reasonable legal fees of Mr. Lauder relating to the investment. These payments were approved by a committee of independent directors of our Board.