Deal to Buy Reelscreen.com and Reelfinder.com

Future Network PLC
17 April 2000


                  FUTURE ACQUIRES FILM WEBSITES
                                 
     Deal to buy Reelscreen.com and Reelfinder.com, leading UK
resources for independent filmmakers and British film enthusiasts.

The Future Network plc (LSE: FNET), the specialist consumer
magazines and websites publisher, today announces that it has
acquired Reelscreen.com and Reelfinder.com, the British film
websites, from The Reelscreen Network Ltd.

Reelscreen.com is a showcase and resource for British independent
filmmakers. It allows users to view a variety of independent films
on line, and contains news and interviews from around the film
industry. It also features community areas and discussion groups
for filmmakers, enabling users to find collaborators in areas such
as scriptwriting, video editing and soundtrack music.
Reelfinder.com is a directory of services for filmmakers with over
15,000 entries and a casting service which enables filmmakers to
search a database of Equity actors using criteria such as height,
eye colour or playing age.

In the past year Reelscreen's sites have been building content and
membership, and now have over 16,000 industry professionals as
registered users. Attention is now turning to revenues, and March
sales were at an annualised run-rate of over £60,000. Under
Future, the sites will add new revenue streams including sales of
directory listings, advertising, pay-per-view movies and e-
commerce. Advertising will be sold by Future's London-based web
advertising team and e-commerce partnerships for video and DVD
sales will be announced shortly.

'Future's magazines and websites already cater for users of
digital video and desktop video at one end of the spectrum, and
dedicated film lovers at the other. Reelscreen's
websites will bridge that gap and ensure that Future has a full
range of publications for every part of the film industry from
amateur through professional to enthusiast,' says Stuart Anderton,
Future's Strategic Development Manager.

'We have found in other parts of the entertainment sector that
'hybrid' business-to-business and business-to-consumer
publications can be very successful; we believe that Reelscreen's
websites can repeat that success in the British film industry.'

Future publishes Total Film, the second best selling film magazine
in the UK, and SFX, the UK's market-leading science fiction
magazine, and recently announced the launch of Total Movie in the
US.  Future also publishes Dailyradar.com, an entertainment
website with daily film news.  Its portfolio of magazines and
websites for creative professionals, such as Computer Arts,
already feature a large amount of practical material on filmmaking
and video editing, and a special edition of Computer Arts
dedicated to digital video is currently on sale.

Rick Palmer, the founder of Reelscreen.com who will join Future as
part of the deal, says: 'Reelscreen is fast establishing itself as
the destination of choice for compelling film content and industry
services online.  Joining Future will enable us to realise our
true market potential and position the Reelscreen brand at the
forefront of online film services.  Future's formidable success in
publishing and new media makes this deal extremely exciting.'

For further information:

Stuart Anderton                     Tel: [phone]
Strategic Development Manager
Future Publishing Ltd

James Longfield/Harriet Keen        Tel: [phone] 
Hogarth Partnership              


About The Future Network Plc
Future was founded in the UK in 1985. Today it publishes over 120
magazines worldwide and has extensive online activities attracting
the attention of 4.6 million unique visitors and generating over
58 million page views per month. It is the world's fastest growing
major publisher; the leading publisher of video games and home
computing magazines in the UK, France, Italy and the US; and,
ranks as the fourth largest magazine publisher in the UK. Future
employs over 1,400 people in offices in Bath, London, San
Francisco, New York, Paris, Milan, Munich and Rotterdam. Future
was floated on the London Stock Exchange in June 1999 and has a
current market capitalisation of over £1 billion.

Future's internet activities serve the PC, Mac, Games, Music and
Football communities in the US and the UK with fast-growing sites
like maximumpc.com, maximumpc.co.uk, dailyradar.com,
intermusic.com, and ufn.co.uk. Future's Web sites and Web networks
provide rich, community and information-based services to people
in these and related markets worldwide. Future's websites and web
networks provides rich, community and information-based services
to people in these and related markets worldwide.  The network
model is simple, but effective: Aggregate content (from Future's
own magazines and from other sites which become affiliated into
the online networks) and provide services (such as e-commerce,
auctions, e-mail and discussion forums) to build high traffic in
concentrated areas that will be of great value to marketers.