As others contract, the Walt Disney Company is expanding, launching a free-to-air Disney Channel in Russia next year. Western media companies have fought for years to enter the huge Russian market, which along with China is seen as crucial to growth; Disney will be the first US firm with a full-time branded TV channel in Russia. Disney will hold a 49 percent stake in a joint venture with the Russian broadcaster Media-One Holdings Limited, and the Russian channel will show Disney family programming and some original Russian content. It remains to be seen how Russians raised on such poetic cartoons as Hedgehog in the Fog will greet Hannah Montana and friends.
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