Brussels, 10 June 2009 – Philippe Delusinne, CEO of RTL Belgium, has been elected as the new President of the Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) at the ACT’s Annual General Meeting in Brussels yesterday. CEOs of commercial channels from all over Europe welcomed the election of Mr. Delusinne.

When accepting the role of ACT President, Mr. Delusinne said: “I am looking forward to my new responsibilities. At a time of fast technological change and a challenging economic environment, cooperation and joint action among commercial broadcasters on policy suggestions coming out of Brussels are of ever greater importance. We are confident in our business models but call on policy-makers for regulatory relief so that our sector will be able to prosper in an increasingly competitive market environment, in particular when compared to our publicly-financed competitors who are much less affected by the crisis”.

The ACT President is elected for a period of two years.

Philippe Delusinne succeeds Nicolas de Tavernost, Chairman of the Executive Management Board M6, who has been the ACT President for the last six years. Philippe Delusinne, born in 1957, started his career in 1982 in the advertising business after an academic background in Law and Marketing. After an experience of 20 years in managing local and international clients in the advertising business and participating in the media business revolution, Philippe Delusinne was appointed Chief Executive Officer of RTL Belgium in March 2002.

Nicolas de Tavernost, the outgoing President, said: “I am delighted to be handing over to Philippe and wish him every success in his mandate. I have always believed that the commercial television sector needs to engage not just on regulatory issues but also to do more to communicate the many strengths of our sector to European decision-makers”.

Ross Biggam, Director General of the ACT, commented: “I would like to use this opportunity to thank Nicolas de Tavernost for his active and successful engagement as ACT-President for the last six years. At the same time I would like to welcome our new President, Philippe Delusinne. In the light of the political changes in Brussels this year, we will need more than ever to engage with politicians and policy-makers and be an active player in the debate about European media policy. In all future policy discussions around content and infrastructure regulation, competition policy, copyright protection or media pluralism, it should not be forgotten that our member companies offer choice and variety to the European viewer on a daily basis”.

About the ACT:

The Association of Commercial Television in Europe (ACT) is a trade association representing the interests of the commercial broadcasting sector in Europe. The ACT has twenty eight member companies active in 34 European countries operating more than 400 free-to-air and pay-tv channels and distributing several hundred channels and new services. For further information, please see: www.acte.b

Press contact:

Jérôme de Béthune Utta Tuttlies

Secretary General RTL Belgium Head of Communications ACT

Phone:
+32-2-337 6361 Phone: +32-2-738 76 18

E-mail: jdebethune@rtl.be E-mail: ut@acte.be