Private Media Group Reports on 2010 Full-Year Results and Comments on the Business Going Forward

BARCELONA, Spain, June 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Private Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRVT) a worldwide leader in premium-quality adult entertainment products today announced its results for the year ended December 31, 2010.

For the twelve months ended December 31, 2010, we had net sales of EUR 23.3 million compared to net sales of EUR 23.1 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, an increase of EUR 0.2 million, or 1%. The increase was the result of increased Internet sales offset by decreases in sales of DVD & Magazines, broadcasting and wireless. Internet sales increased EUR 1.6 million to EUR 14.8 million, which represents an increase of 12% compared to the same period last year. The increase in Internet sales was the result of our acquisitions last year. Discounting EUR 3.4 million in impact from acquisitions, Internet Sales decreased EUR 1.8 million as a result of the rebuilding of our website private.com. Broadcasting sales decreased EUR 0.6 million, or 14%, to EUR 3.9 million. Wireless sales in the period decreased EUR 0.1 million, or 6%, to EUR 1.5 million as a result of a reduced share in the consumer spend provided to aggregators and content providers by telecom operators in general in this business. DVD & Magazine sales decreased EUR 0.7 million, or 18%, to EUR 3.2 million. The reduction in DVD & Magazine sales was primarily attributable to an industry wide decrease in DVD sales.

Net sales in general were affected by changes in exchange rates. The annual average U.S. dollar exchange rate for the fiscal year 2010 compared to 2009 increased 4.2% which increased all our sales, cost and expenses denominated in U.S. dollars by the same percentage. Fluctuations in exchange rates between the euro and the dollar can affect the comparability of our results from year to year. We translate our consolidated subsidiaries whose functional currency is not the euro into the euro for reporting purposes. Income statement amounts are translated into euro using the average exchange rate for the fiscal year. The balance sheet is translated at the year-end exchange rate.

Overall, net sales and margins were affected by the impact of free adult content on the Internet. Going forward, we expect Internet, wireless and Broadcasting sales to increase.

In the twelve months ended December 31, 2010, we realized a gross profit of EUR 6.4 million, or 28% of net sales compared to EUR 6.2 million, or 27% of net sales for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009.

Our selling, general and administrative expenses were EUR 13.1 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010 compared to EUR 23.9 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009, a decrease of EUR 10.8 million, or 45%. Adjusting the difference for indemnification expense of EUR 0.5 million, impact from last year's acquisitions of EUR 1.8 million offset by the absence of EUR 9.5 million of  non-recurring expenses in 2009 made up of: provision against related party receivable of EUR 7.3 million, investment write-off of EUR 1.0 million, expense related to closing down subsidiary of EUR 0.6 million and acquisition related expenses of EUR 0.6 million, we reduced selling, general and administrative expenses by EUR 3.6 million as a result of our restructuring program, see Restructuring above for additional discussion. Considering indications during the three month period ending December 31, 2010, we expect to continue to reduce our selling, general and administrative expenses in 2011, significantly.

We reported a loss of EUR 4.3 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010, compared to EUR 20.5 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2009. The decrease of EUR 16.2 million was primarily the result of decreased operating loss and deferred tax.

Liquidity

In each of the past three years we have experienced losses from operations. At December 31, 2010, we had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 370,000 and a working capital deficit of EUR 1,102,000. As a result, our independent registered public accounting firm has concluded that there is substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern, and has modified its report in the form of an explanatory paragraph describing the events that have given rise to this uncertainty. Our ability to continue as a going concern is based on our ability to generate or obtain sufficient cash to meet our obligations on a timely basis and ultimately to attain profitable operations. We currently expect future growth and to return to profitability provided we are successful with the following objectives:

• the continued rollout and successful marketing of our Internet platforms, including: a) our newly built signature property and membership platform private.com, b) our cutting edge mobile platforms for Smart Phones and c) our multinational eCommerce VOD platform;
• the successful marketing of our affiliate programs for all our properties to compete aggressively for, and attract, affiliate traffic;
• continuing the rollout of our content on cable and IPTV video-on demand platforms;
• completing the integration of businesses acquired in 2009;
• consolidating and restructuring our operations into an efficient new media business;
• outsourcing of non-cost effective parts of our operations; and
• identifying and exploring new online business opportunities which are less dependent on content.

If we are not successful in implementing the above objectives, or if we otherwise do not successfully respond to changing conditions in the adult entertainment industry, we may continue to incur significant losses. There can be no assurance that we will be able to operate profitably in the future.

Commenting on some important factors relating to the business going forward, Private Media Group, Inc., CFO, Johan Gillborg stated: "During 2009 and 2010, We have developed Internet solutions for critical new markets: gay, international and mobile. Furthermore, as a response to decreased margins in the adult entertainment industry, we have reviewed, analyzed and continued to restructure the operations of the non-online part of the business in order to become more cost effective. Last year's acquisitions of GameLink and Sureflix have also presented a challenge in terms of integration. All the aforementioned processes have had impact both in terms of lost sales and additional selling, general and administrative expenses. However, as part of these processes, during 2010 we have reduced our workforce by 34% from 168 to 112 employees and we expect to continue this process as we become more efficient and enjoy economies of scale from the aforementioned acquisitions. During 2011, we will start benefiting from the restructuring and reduce costs while increasing sales as we implement, launch and market new initiatives.

As part of our digital strategy, we have established that the combination of Private with major online retailers and accomplished platform developers is the approach to achieving our goals in the rapidly changing business landscape. The combined content assets of Private and core competencies of GameLink and Sureflix offer a compelling new business model. We will be expanding our joint Internet strategies globally with additional formats and applications to be launched in 2011. Currently we are reformatting and migrating all content on the GameLink VOD platform to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and we expect this to enhance the user experience substantially and therefore improve both conversion and retention rates in general, but particularly in eastern North America and in Europe. This is a paramount initiative which is expected to increase sales significantly and also make it possible to expand our cooperation with affiliates worldwide. In addition, this initiative is crucial for the development and distribution of apps which will enable consumer access from the growing market of SMART TVs. The completion of the CDN initiative is expected to take place in the second half of 2011. In addition, during 2011 we will continue to aggressively market our recently launched cutting-edge Internet assets discussed below.

In May 2010, we launched our new private.com membership platform which we have been building since mid 2009. The new platform features a number of proprietary sites and it is also available as a white label(1) version, which we expect will attract adult content providers and affiliates worldwide. In addition, the new platform has been built to be substantially less labor intensive to operate compared to the previous one. The new platform has already proved to have improved conversion rates and during the second half of 2010 the new membership pay-site attracted 73% more unique visitors compared to the previous one in the same period in 2009.

In April 2010, GameLink, launched a proprietary mobile solution enabling users to instantly stream over 15,000 movies. The platform is available to Smart Phones at the url: www. gamelink. com. The mobile Internet platform allows consumers to purchase and consume content instantly. All content is available for future viewing in the customer's virtual media center, stored in the company's "cloud". The platform has been optimized to work with Apple devices including the iPhone, iPod, the iPad as well as Android devices. Furthermore, in 2010, Apple's OS upgrade to iOS4.3 for iPhones, iPads and iPod touches made it possible to watch GameLink's mobile library on Apple TV by allowing users to redirect content streaming from those devices to their Apple TV. In addition to streaming, consumers can choose to download their movies or purchase DVDs and novelties from the globally accessible platform. A white label version of the mobile platform is available and is being marketed to adult studios and affiliates worldwide. Our objective is to become the main provider of an off-portal mobile platform solution to all major content providers in our industry. In contrast to Private's existing mobile content business, which is based on an on-portal model going through content aggregators and carriers, this new business is off-portal and provides substantially improved margins as content is sold directly by ourselves to the consumer. Our weekly sales for the GameLink VOD mobile solution has been steadily increasing since its launch and current weekly sales represents a USD 1.0 million twelve-month run rate. In August 2010, Sureflix introduced mobile VOD on its existing platform for its Maleflixxx network of hundreds of sites. The new mobile platform, Maleflixxx Mobile, allows consumers to view gay content on all mobile devices, including the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and Android handsets. Furthermore, in Q4, 2010, we released a number of Smart Phone apps with an end to increase traffic to our mobile assets. With the Smart Phone market growing rapidly(2), we expect to generate substantial growth from our mobile VOD initiatives going forward.

With respect to broadcasting, Private content is currently broadcasted via 194 platforms in 42 countries. We are continuing to implement our media growth strategy across all delivery systems, including: DTT, satellite, cable and IPTV. While European broadband users are signing up for IPTV services in the hundreds of thousands each month, making Europe the biggest and fastest growing IPTV region in the world, we have successfully implemented part of our new media strategy and contracted for supplying content for TVOD(3) services to a total of 26 major platform operators in 18 countries in the region. During 2010 the European IPTV market grew by 25% to 20.7 million IPTV subscribers(4) and by the end of the year we had more than 75% market coverage. France remains the "world champion" IPTV country with 10.3 million subscribers and we cover 100% of this market. In relation to Private branded TV channels carrying our content in Europe and Latin America, our partners Playboy TV International and Playboy TV Latin America continue to improve distribution. In 2010, the Private Spice agreement with Playboy TV International was renewed for another five years. The channel is receivable in all of Europe and it currently has distribution in 22 countries via 101 cable, satellite, DTT and IPTV platforms. During the past twelve months, Playboy TV Latin America continued to increase the distribution of the Private Channel. The channel is receivable in all of Latin America and it currently has distribution in 19 countries via 63 cable, satellite and IPTV platforms and reaches 38 million platform subscribers.

Private's mobile 'on portal' revenues declined again in 2010. We are still the most distributed adult brand in the world and will monetize existing distribution as best as we can by going live with the few outstanding carriers and replacing non-performing content aggregators with new ones. During 2010, the distribution of Private content continued to increase and by the end of the year it was available to 1.5 billion handsets via 114 mobile network operators in 37 countries. The markets of Asia and the Americas are still underexploited by us and therefore represent a significant growth potential. Furthermore, Mobile TV, increased penetration of Smart Phones and the implementation of age verification systems offer additional growth potential with both current and future operators in 2011 and beyond(5).

During 2010, the DVD market has continued to shrink, with sales for our physical products declining by 18%. However, the DVD business is by no means dead even in this competitive landscape. The content providers that manage to survive the current 'clean out' will control the DVD market going forward," Mr. Gillborg concluded.

Financial Highlights

NOTES TO THE EDITOR:

Footnotes

1. A white label product or service is a product or service produced by one company (the producer) that other companies (the marketers) rebrand to make it appear as if they made it.

2. According to Parks Associates report of March, 2010, "Smart Phone: King of Convergence": the number of Smart Phone users is expected to quadruple, exceeding 1 billion worldwide by 2014.

3. True Video On Demand - (TVOD) - TVOD is the ideal VOD service where individual users get immediate responses when interacting with the VOD system. With TVOD, the user can not only get instant access to the program online and watch it on TV, but also be able to do any VCR or DVD-like commands on the VOD system with the same quick response time as it is when working a VCR or DVD.

4. According to Point Topic's report of March, 2011, "IPTV Q4 2010 Short Report".

5. Juniper Research estimates in its 2010 study 'Mobile Adult Strategies: Downloads, Video Chat, Apps & Messaging 2010-2015.' that global revenues from all mobile adult services will rise from $1.7 billion in 2009 to $2.8 billion by 2015.

About Private Media Group

Founded in 1965, NASDAQ listed Private Media Group is a brand-driven world leader in adult entertainment, operating a global content distribution network with a wide range of platforms including; the Internet, broadcasting via cable, satellite, digital TV and IPTV on 194 platforms in 42 countries, mobile content delivery via 114 network operators in 37 countries and retail sale of DVDs and magazines. Private Media Group owns the worldwide rights to its extensive archive of high-quality content, and also licenses its Private and "Silver Girls" trademarks internationally for a select range of products and services. Private is the world's preferred content provider of adult entertainment to consumers anywhere, at any time and across all distribution platforms and devices.

Corporate site: prvt.com, consumer site: private.com

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:
Johan Gillborg
Chief Financial Officer
Private Media Group
Tel +34 93 620 80 90
[email protected]

SOURCE Private Media Group