CLT-UFA, Europe’s leading broadcasting group, has achieved an unaudited net result of € 62 million for the first quarter of 2000, up from € 25,9 million for the same period in 1999. This positive development is the result of a strong increase of more than 50% of the operational result up to € 39 million. In addition an extraordinary result of € 23 million has been realized mainly due to the capital gain on the disposal of Audiofina shares held by CLT-UFA. There has been no extraordinary gain for the same period in 1999.
This result is also due to a different kind of writing off program rights within the group. Instead of a monthly depreciation (started in January 2000), 1999, 30% of the program rights have been written off in the first half year and 70% in the second half of 1999. With a monthly booking, the net result of CLT-UFA would have been € 16,7 million for the first quarter of 1999. Compared to the net result of € 39 million for the first quarter of 2000 this would have been an increase of 134%, reflecting in a more appropriate way the economic performance of CLT-UFA in the first quarter of 2000.
The revenues group share of CLT-UFA increased by 13% to € 783 million in the first quarter of 2000, coming from € 691 million in the same period of 1999.
This positive development is mainly the result of the good performances of the largest profit centers of CLT-UFA, i.e. M6 in France and RTL Television in Germany, and of the strong growth of the start-ups, i.e. Channel 5 in UK.
The revenues of M6 increased by 18.8% compared to the same period 1999. M6 continued to be the second channel in the French Free TV market with an audience share of 21.3% in the target group.
RTL Television in Germany confirmed its market leader position in the overall market as well as in the target group. RTL II in Germany also confirmed its leader position within the group of the “second league” channels.
The audience share of Channel 5 increased from 4.8% to 5.8% and the channel achieved a positive operational result for the first quarter of 2000.
The revenues in the radio business increased by 17%. The profitability continues to increase with FUN Radio and Atlantic 252 achieving positive results in the first quarter of 2000.
CLT-UFA is the leading European broadcasting Group with shareholdings in 40 television and radio stations, most of which are market leader (RTL Television in Germany, RTL radio in France, HMG in the Netherlands). CLT-UFA also holds interests in numerous production and broadcasting rights distribution companies ( including UFA Film – Film and TV Productions in Germany and UFA Sports in Europe).