Luxembourg, 9 August 2024 – RTL Group announces its reviewed results for the six months ending 30 June 2024.
Statement from Thomas Rabe, Chief Executive Officer of RTL Group:
“We have made significant progress in executing our strategy and transforming our businesses by investing, partnering and co-operating more than ever before. As a result, our TV audience performances were strong and our streaming services grew dynamically in the first six months of the year. RTL+ increased its viewing hours by almost 50 per cent across all age groups, and M6+ launched successfully. We are on track to reach our long-term streaming targets and thus profitability by 2026.
Our partnerships with Deutsche Telekom and Sky Deutschland are working well, and the advertising technology partnership with ProSiebenSat1 will start soon. With the planned migration of RTL+ to the Bedrock platform, we are creating a true European champion in streaming technology.
With the acquisitions of Asacha Media Group and Beach House Pictures, we have invested €200 million to further expand our global content business Fremantle.
Overall, our financial performance in the first half of 2024 was in line with our expectations, and we confirm our full-year guidance.”
The German flagship channel RTL was the only commercial channel in Germany to gain audience share. It reached 10.4 per cent in the target group of viewers aged 14 to 59 (H1/2023: 9.8 per cent). RTL Deutschland extended the lead over its main commercial competitor ProSiebenSat1 to 7.6 percentage points (H1/2023: lead of 5.8 percentage points) – a half-year record. RTL Deutschland’s combined audience share in the target group of viewers aged 14 to 59 was almost stable at 27.4 per cent (H1/2023: 27.6 per cent).
The audience shares of Groupe M6’s free-to-air channels in the commercial target group of viewers aged 25 to 49 were stable at 20.5 per cent (H1/2023: 20.6 per cent).
In June and July 2024, RTL Deutschland and M6 broadcasted matches of the Uefa Euro 2024, scoring high reach across linear TV and streaming. In Germany, RTL’s broadcast of the Netherlands against Turkey quarter final was watched on average by 10.5 million viewers (3+), representing a total audience share of 41.2 per cent. In addition to the linear broadcasts, the twelve matches of the Uefa Euro 2024 were streamed over 4 million times on RTL+. In France, a total of 46.9 million people watched the Uefa Euro 2024 on M6 and 3 million on the streaming service M6+. The France against Portugal quarter final scored an average audience of 12.7 million on M6, representing a total audience share of 58.0 per cent, and was watched live on M6+ by 1 million streamers.
On 24 July 2024, French media authority Arcom announced the renewal of the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) licences for Groupe M6’s channels W9, Gulli and Paris Première. Arcom and Groupe M6 will now draw up an agreement defining the obligations and commitments of the channels for a maximum of ten years.
As of 30 June 2024, RTL Group served 6.273 million paying subscribers with its streaming services RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and M6+ in France – up 24.8 per cent year on year (30 June 2023: 5.027 million).
Fremantle is RTL Group’s global content business, spanning entertainment, drama and film, and documentaries. In February 2024, Fremantle acquired an 80 per cent stake in Asian production company Beach House Pictures. The Singapore-based company also operates in Japan, Korea and China as well as the US, UK and Europe, and is one of Asia’s largest independent TV and film production companies. This was followed by the full acquisition of Asacha Media Group in March 2024. The France-based European production group owns stakes in eight production companies in France, Italy and the UK. Asacha Media Group is diversified in geography, genre and customer base, complementing Fremantle’s footprint in Europe.
Fremantle had major creative successes in the first half of 2024, winning 114 awards (H1/2023: 65). The film Poor Things from Fremantle’s Element Pictures received 34 awards in total, including four Academy Awards (Oscars) out of 11 nominations, alongside two Golden Globes, five BAFTA Awards and The Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In July 2024, Fremantle received 15 Emmy nominations for eight shows across entertainment, drama and documentaries.
In the first half of 2024, Fremantle announced several first-look deals: Nevermind Pictures, the production company from Kristen Stewart; AlterEgo; Astral Projections; Me+You Productions; and Roughcut Television. Fremantle also renewed an exclusive first-look deal with Fabula.
The strategic partnership of Sky Deutschland and RTL Deutschland started in January 2024. It includes the sublicensing of seven Formula 1 races, one game from the English Premier League per match week on RTL+ and three conference broadcasts of the 2. Bundesliga for RTL Deutschland. The partnership also includes selected highlights rights and Sky fiction productions. In July 2024, the partnership was extended by including RTL+ and RTL Deutschland’s channels in HD quality in Sky Stream.
In April 2024, RTL Deutschland announced a strategic partnership with the production companies Wiedemann & Berg Film and Leonine Studios, which have produced or co-produced the most successful German films in cinemas for four consecutive years from 2020 to 2023. With a multi-year framework agreement, RTL Deutschland has secured the exclusive free-to-air TV and streaming rights to German film productions from the two companies.
In February 2024, RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat1 announced an advertising technology partnership which will bundle the services of their respective advertising technology businesses, Smartclip and Virtual Minds. This will enable advertisers to book advertising campaigns across all inventories – linear and non-linear – including the streaming services RTL+ and Joyn.
RTL Group confirms its outlook presented on 14 March 2024:
The impact of the geopolitical and macroeconomic environment on RTL Group’s businesses continues to be hard to predict. On the basis of a slight recovery of the German TV advertising market and broadly stable advertising markets in the Group’s other territories,
Strategic targets for RTL Group’s streaming services8
Profitability is expected by 20269.
Fremantle targets full-year revenue of €3 billion by 2026.
To achieve this goal, RTL Group is investing significantly in Fremantle – both organically and via acquisitions – across entertainment, drama and film, and documentaries.
After integrating its acquired labels/production companies into the Fremantle network and reducing overhead, Fremantle’s Adjusted EBITA margin is expected to increase to 9 per cent by 2026.
The full report for the interim results 2024 is available to download at RTL Group interim results 2024
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1In December 2023, RTL Group announced the envisaged sale of RTL Nederland to DPG Media, and therefore presents its interim results for H1/2024 and the comparative figures without RTL Nederland (IFRS 5 ‘Discontinued operations’). The operating segment RTL Nederland continues to be classified as held for sale and presented as discontinued operations in RTL Group’s consolidated financial statements for the year 2023 and in the condensed interim consolidated financial statements 2024 (Application of IFRS 5 ‘Non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations’ to the operating segment RTL Nederland). If not indicated otherwise, all figures presented/reported in this document refer to continuing operations. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals, and is expected to close around the end of 2024
2Adjusted for portfolio changes and at constant exchange rates. Further details can be found in Key performance indicators on page 10 ff of RTL Group’s interim report 2024
3Streaming revenue includes SVOD, TVOD, in-stream and distribution revenue from RTL+ in Germany, M6+ (previously 6play) in France and RTL+ in Hungary (including RTL+/RTL+ Active/RTL+ Light)
4Revenue generated across all distribution platforms (cable, satellite, internet TV) including re-transmission fees
5See Key performance indicators on page 10 ff of RTL Group’s interim report 2024
6See Key performance indicators on page 10 ff of RTL Group’s interim report 2024
7Net debt excludes current and non-current lease liabilities. Including these, net debt as of 30 June 2024 was €-1,405 million (31 December 2023: net debt of €-592 million). See Key performance indicators on page 10 ff of RTL Group’s interim report 2024
8RTL+ in Germany, M6+/6play in France and RTL+ in Hungary
9Total of Adjusted EBITA from RTL+ in Germany and Hungary, M6+ in France and Bedrock as consolidated on RTL Group level. The Adjusted EBITA of RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and M6+ includes synergies with TV channels at business unit level. For the definition of Adjusted EBITA please see Key performance indicators on page 10 ff of RTL Group’s interim report 2024