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TV product performance

In a 2009 characterised by an increasingly overcrowded and aggressive competitive setting and by the growth of the dissemination of DTT, the Rai Group maintains its market leadership both with regard to the average day and to prime time.

On an average day, Rai consolidates its share with 40.7% compared to Mediaset�fs 39.5%.

This occurs within the cope of a general increase in the shares obtained by digital channels: excluding the Rai and Mediaset networks measured by Auditel, the totality of �esatellite TV broadcasters�f rises to 9.2% (+0.9 share points on 2008), while �eOther terrestrial TV broadcasters�f (Local TV and DTT) reach 7.6% (+0.7%).

The positive performance of the Rai Group is largely due to the specialised channels within the offering of �eRai Digitale�f, which obtain a total share of 1.4%, with an increase of +0.5 points compared to 2008, influenced mainly by Rai 4, Rai Gulp and Rai Sport Piu.

This confirms Rai Italy�fs third digital broadcaster, after Sky and Fox and before important competitors such as Disney, Turner, Discovery Channel and Viacom.

These results partially offset the decline of the three general-interest channels, with RaiUno being confirmed as the most watched channel of all (21.2% share; -0.6% on 2008) and RaiTre at 8.9% (-0.1%). The performance of RaiDue (9.2%; -1.4%) has been affected by the impact of the switchover of important areas (for several months the channel was visible only to part of the residents in the areas concerned) and by the absence of significant programmes such as the Olympic Games and L�fIsola dei famosi
(I�fm a celebrity, get me out of here), which had characterised programming in 2008.

In Prime Time the Rai Group prevails with a share of 42.8% compared to Mediaset�fs 39.1%. RaiUno is confirmed at the leading channel with a 22.3% share. The prime time slot has also been characterised by a growth in �eOther TV�f to the detriment of the traditional general-interest offering, with all �eSatellite TV�f totalling an 8.1% share (+1.0 percentage points on the previous year) and �eOther terrestrial TV�f (Local and DTT) at 7.3% (+0.7%).
Rai�fs results are based on the reasons already indicated for the average day: the slight decline of (-0.3%), RaiDue (-0.7%) and RaiTre (-0.6%) corresponds to an increase by Rai Digitale (1.0% share; +0.4 percentage points) drawn by Rai 4, Rai Gulp, Rai Sport Piu, RaiSat Cinema and RaiSat Premium which are the most watched channels.

For details on the competitive setting for the near future, it is interesting to focus on viewing figures for November- December, when the switch-off had been completed in Piedmont, Val d�fAosta, Trentino Alto Adige, Lazio and Campania, which joined Sardinia, �gdigitalised�h in 2008.

This combination of �eall digital�f regions is a sufficiently representative basin due to heterogeneity and the extent of the population involved (about 30% of the whole Italian population), and also because broadcasters have already released a broader offering than in the rest of the country. The results coming from the all digital regions are very positive and prove the validity of the choices made by Rai.

On the average day, Rai prevails over Mediaset even more than in the other areas: Rai group reaches 42.8% against Mediaset�fs 36.2%, with Rai�fs three general-interest channels overtaking those of the direct competition (38.0% against 34.0%).

Rai Digitale, with an offering on DTT divided over ten specialised channels, obtains a total share of 4.8% and places no fewer than 6 channels in the classification of the 10 most popular digital broadcasters (free and pay). Particularly evident are Rai 4 (1.3% share), RaiSat Cinema (0.8%) and RaiSat YoYo (0.7%).