Private Reaches 75% Coverage in France - The World's Leading IPTV Market

Private Reaches 75% Coverage in France - The World's Leading IPTV Market

BARCELONA, Spain, June 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Private Media Group Inc. (NASDAQ:PRVT) announced today the launch of its content on the Canal+ Group's Video-on-Demand (VOD) service "CanalPlay" on Free's IPTV platform "Freebox TV" in France.

As part of Free's Triple-Play service, "Freebox TV" offers more than 200 TV channels and access to Canalplay's VOD catalogue which includes 2,000 videos, of which 1,300 are feature length movies. The VOD service offers full DVD functionality, including all standard functions such as pause, rewind, fast forward, chapter skip, etc.

With this agreement Private takes another step forward in its aggressive IPTV strategy for Europe, which includes to have its content accessible to more than 90% of French IPTV subscribers before the end of 2007. The agreement provides access to hundreds of titles from Private's extensive proprietary movie library and includes both new releases as well as classic blockbuster titles.

Peter Cohen, COO of Private Media Group commented: "We are extremely happy with being able to feature our content on the CanalPlay platform via Freebox TV. This agreement represents another strategic move for Private in the dynamic European IPTV/VOD market.* France, with its population of 62 million people, is currently the world's leading IPTV market and by adding this agreement to our IPTV/VOD distribution we now cover approximately 75% of all IPTV subscribers in France."

Cohen continued: "Through consolidation taking place in the French marketplace, we expect to cover more than 90% of all IPTV subscribers in France before the end of the year. In addition, the French market in general is expected to generate the bulk of the forecasted aggressive growth in the European IPTV market this year. Consequently we expect this development to have a very positive impact on our business going forward."

The Company is of the firm belief that IPTV in Europe will be the TV delivery platform of choice for the Pay-TV consumer. This is based on its superior functionality which provides added value, the convergence of telephony, Internet access and digital television into Triple-Play and the general perception among media research firms and industry leaders in the media and telecom sectors.

NOTES TO THE EDITOR
Footnote
* According to Global IPTV Forecasts made by MRG (Multimedia Research
Group, Inc.), the number of global IPTV subscribers is estimated to grow
from 8.0 million in 2006 to 63.6 million in 2011. Europe continues to be
the biggest market for IPTV, with France significantly leading the
growth projections through its principal telcos. The number of IPTV
subscribers in Europe is forecasted to grow from approximately 4 million
in 2006 to 27.5 million in 2011, a compound annual growth rate of 47
percent.

About CanalPlay

CanalPlay, Canal+ Group's video downloading service, offers more than 2,000 videos on demand, 1,000 of which are films made for cinema. More than 2.4 million videos were purchased via CanalPlay in 2006 and, since January 2007, customers can download permanently and burn films on DVDs. CanalPlay is accessible via PCs (http://www.canalplay.com/) and television (via ADSL). The Canal+ Group is a subsidiary of Vivendi.

About Free

Free is a subsidiary of the Iliad Group. The Iliad Group is a dominant player on the French Internet and telecommunications market with Free (No 1 alternative ADSL operator with 2,498,000 broadband subscribers on 31/3/2007, representing more than 25% market share), Onetel and Iliad Telecom (landline telephone operators), IFW (Wimax). The Iliad Group is listed on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris under the abbreviation ILD.

About Private Media Group

With its 40 year track record, NASDAQ listed Private Media Group is a brand-driven world leader in adult entertainment products. Private distributes premium quality content globally via a wide range of platforms including; VOD/IPTV, wireless (+700 million handsets), broadband Internet, television broadcasting, DVDs and Magazines. Private Media Group owns the worldwide rights to its extensive archive of top-quality content, and also licenses its "Private" and "Silver Girls" trademarks internationally for a range of consumer products and services.

Disclaimer

This release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which reflect the Company's current judgments of those issues. However, because those statements are forward-looking and apply to future events, they are subject to such risks and uncertainties, which could lead to results materially different than anticipated by the Company.

For further information please contact:

Gareth Davies
CUSTARD PR
gdavies@rainierpr.co.uk
Ph: +44 (0) 20 7494 6576
Cell ph: +44 (0) 7980 820994

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Private Media Group Inc.

CONTACT: Gareth Davies, of CUSTARD PR, +44 (0) 20 7494 6576, cell,
+44 (0) 7980 820994, gdavies@rainierpr.co.uk

Web site:

http://www.prvt.com/
http://www.canalplay.com/

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