Trading Statement

RNS Number:8483Y
RTL Group
19 July 2002

                                   RTL Group

              Trading Update for the six months ended 30 June 2002

Luxembourg July 19 2002 - RTL Group is making the following trading update in
advance of its interim results announcement in September, for the six months
ended 30 June 2002.

Didier Bellens, Chief Executive Officer of RTL Group, commented:

"In what has remained a tough operating environment we have several success
stories to report, namely Channel 5, Radio France and FremantleMedia. Channel 5
has grown its audience share by 10 per cent and its share of the advertising
market by 14 per cent since the beginning of the year. Our French radio business
has extended its market leadership over commercial rivals and out performed in
terms of advertising market growth.  Finally, the performance of our production
business, FremantleMedia, has continued to improve, helped by the success of "
Pop Idol" in both the UK and, I am pleased to report, in the US as well.

Despite difficult trading conditions over the half-year we continue to perform
well and attract significant audience shares in our main markets.  In Germany,
RTL Group is now the clear number one family of television channels and in
France we have consolidated our position as number two television broadcaster.

We have remained tightly focused on improving the operating performance of the
business by reducing costs and selling or closing down non-core or under
performing assets.   Because of these measures to improve operating efficiency
RTL Group will be well positioned to benefit when the rebound in advertising
markets comes.  RTL Group is now operationally stronger than ever before, is
exploiting more and more synergies and has a lean, cost conscious structure.  In
addition, we believe a return to more reasonable pricing levels for sports and
feature film rights will bring a reduction in programming costs.

As we stated in March, at our full year results announcement, advertising market
visibility is extremely low. While it appears that there are some first,
tentative, positive signs in the UK and Netherlands, Germany is weak, and France
flat. Despite these continuing difficult markets we believe we are in line to
meet market expectations for the full year."

Television

                                     Audience market share       Advertising market share (%)
                                           14-49 (%)
                                     H1 2002       H1 2001        H1 2002         H1 2001
Germany(1)          RTL               17.3           18.1          28.4             29.3
                    RTL II             5.7           5.7            5.3             6.6
                    Super RTL         18.2           21.0           2.0             2.0
                    (3-13)
                    VOX                4.4           4.2            4.8             4.0

                                     Audience market share       Advertising market share (%)
                                           15-34 (%)
France(2)           M6                21.8           22.8          23.2             23.1

                                     Audience market share       Advertising market share (%)
                                             4+ (%)
UK(3)               Channel 5          6.4           5.6            7.3             6.2

                                     Audience market share       Advertising market share (%)
                                         Shoppers 20-49
                                     (18:00 -24:00 hrs) (%)
Netherlands(4)      RTL4              18.1           16.4          24.0             23.2
                    RTL5               4.2           5.0            3.3             4.8
                    Yorin              6.4           8.4           11.1             12.8

                                     Audience market share       Advertising market share (%)
                                         Shoppers 18-44
                                     (17:00 -23:00 hrs) (%)
Belgium(5)          RTL TVI           21.7           25.6          51.2             56.2
                    Club RTL           8.6           7.0           13.0             11.2

Following a relatively robust performance in the first half of 2001, the German
television market has seen a cumulative fall in gross advertising spend of
around 7 percent in the first half of 2002. RTL Group's channels have however
maintained their strong market position with the continued ratings success of
well-known and highly popular formats despite specific one-off events on the
public channels such as the Winter Olympics and the World Cup.

In France, the successful investment in programming, including Loft Story 2, has
helped maintain the audience share for M6 at close to last year's impressive
levels.  The net advertising market remains weak but the successful
diversification strategy followed by M6 has helped to significantly reduce the
impact of this weakness on its results.

In the UK, Channel 5 has grown its advertising market share to 7.3 per cent in a
market that is down by around 1 per cent year-on-year.  In addition, audience
share has continued to grow, and is now at 6.4 per cent, up 10 per cent since
the beginning of the year.  Channel 5 has continued to invest in programming, in
line with our long-term aim of increasing audience share.

In the Netherlands, our main channel, RTL 4, is growing both in terms of
audience and advertising market share, an encouraging performance in what is a
competitive market. Overall, however, RTL Group's channels have lost audience
share and advertising market share. This partly reflects the impact of one-off
events such as the Royal Wedding, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup. RTL
management in the Netherlands is continuing to take action to turn Yorin's
performance around.

The Belgian market has seen the emergence of a new competitor, AB3, which
distorts the year-on-year comparison for our main channel, RTL TVI.  Overall, we
are pleased with the performance of the channel and believe the new management
team will revitalize the station in the near future.

Radio

In French Radio, the ratings show that RTL in France has successfully stemmed
its audience decline and is now widening the gap between it and its nearest
commercial competitors. The last audience ratings confirm RTL Radio's number one
position, with an audience share at 13.0 per cent.  Fun Radio and RTL 2's
audience shares remained stable at 4.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.

Content

RTL Group's worldwide production business continues to benefit from investment
in new format development and the restructuring of the North American operations
undertaken last year. The international scale of the FremantleMedia network has
helped us to roll out "Pop Idol" to countries as diverse as the US, South Africa
and Poland. The show will also be broadcast later this year on RTL stations in
Germany and Holland. Our European serial dramas are as popular as ever and
complement our reality and game show output.  The restructuring in 2001 removed
under-performing elements and accordingly the 2002 results will show significant
improvement over those reported last year.

New Media

In New Media, we continue to be one of the leading players in Europe with both
RTL World (RTL.de) and M6 Web (m6.fr) commanding leading spots in their markets
as general entertainment sites.  We are reviewing our cost base and have started
a restructuring programme at our largest operation, RTL NewMedia.

The Company will announce its interim results in September 2002 in London

Media contacts:                                    Media and Investors:

RTL Group                                          Finsbury
Roy Addison                                        Julius Duncan
Markus Payer                                       Alice Macandrew
Christian Seidenabel                               + 44 207 251 3801
+ 352 421 42 5020                                  [e-mail]
[e-mail]                           [e-mail]
[e-mail]
Christian.Seidenabel @rtlgroup.com

--------------------------

(1) Source: GfK, Nielsen S+P

(2) Source: Mediametrie, SECODIP

(3) Source: BARB

(4) Source: Infomart, BBC

(5) Source: Audimetrie CIM South; Videotrack


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