Press Release | Gütersloh, 11/18/2025

Q3 2025: Bertelsmann Continues Its Revenue Growth Path

• Revenues of €13.5 billion after nine months
• Organic revenue growth of 1.9 percent
• €1.3 billion in investments in the Boost strategy in 2025

Gütersloh, November 18, 2025 – The international media, services, and education company Bertelsmann continued to grow in the first nine months of the year. Reported Group revenues for the period totaled €13.5 billion (PY: €13.4 billion), an increase of 0.8 percent year on year. Organic growth reached 1.9 percent. Penguin Random House, Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments made the largest contributions to this increase.

Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe said: “The first nine months of 2025 were positive overall for us, even in a challenging environment. We saw further organic growth, particularly in our book publishing, services, and education businesses, as well as in the new activities at Bertelsmann Investments. Our Boost investments amounted to roughly €1.3 billion in the period and are on track to reach about €8 billion by the end of 2026. The breadth of our portfolio across businesses and regions continues to be a major strategic advantage in uncertain times. For 2025, we again expect to achieve Group profit of more than €1 billion.”

Highlights from the divisions

The streaming revenues of RTL Group (RTL+ in Germany and Hungary, and M6+ in France) rose by 27 percent in the reporting period, driven by a growing subscriber base, higher subscription prices in Germany, and higher advertising revenues in both Germany and France. The number of paying streaming subscribers increased by 17 percent to 7.6 million. In September 2025, French entertainer Cyril Hanouna launched his new show on W9, delivering some of the channel’s second best September audience shares. Fremantle produced new formats, including “Pandora’s Box” and “The Monster of Florence”. In June 2025, RTL Group announced the signing of a binding agreement to acquire Sky Deutschland (DACH). The transaction will bring together two of the best-known media brands in the DACH region with around 11.5 million paying subscribers. Completion is subject to approval by the European Commission, which RTL Group expects in the first half of 2026. In September 2025, the Commission on Media Concentration approved the planned acquisition and raised no concerns about media plurality.

Penguin Random House delivered numerous publishing successes across categories. Among the bestselling titles in the first nine months of 2025 were “The Let Them Theory” by Mel Robbins, “Great Big Beautiful Life” by Emily Henry, and James Clear’s long-running bestseller “Atomic Habits”. Third-quarter highlights included Dan Brown’s long-awaited novel “The Secret of Secrets”, which quickly became one of the year’s top sellers, as well as “Alchemised”, the highly acclaimed debut by SenLinYu. “Alchemised” sold more than 300,000 copies across formats in North America in its first week, making it one of the most successful adult debut novels of all time. The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to László Krasznahorkai, who is published by Penguin Random House in Brazil through Companhia das Letras and in Portugal through Grupo Editorial.

BMG completed its largest single catalog acquisition to date, securing the music catalog of country superstar Jason Aldean as part of a rights collection comprising more than 1,000 songs by 23 artists and songwriters. Since the launch of Bertelsmann’s Boost program in 2021, BMG has invested more than US$1.5 billion in music rights. The company also signed a multi-year U.S. publishing licensing agreement with Spotify that gives BMG songwriters a more direct stake in the growth of the streaming market.

Arvato Group’s services businesses continued to grow dynamically. Arvato significantly expanded its services in the fast-growing data center logistics segment. The financial services provider Riverty launched an AI-supported customer service platform designed to enhance communication with consumers. Arvato Systems expanded its expertise and offerings in the area of digital sovereignty.

Bertelsmann Marketing Services faced a range of challenges amid difficult market conditions. Revenues in Digital Marketing declined, driven in particular by the loss of a major client at DeutschlandCard and reduced demand from advertisers, while book printing businesses in Germany performed positively overall. The agency group Territory advanced the comprehensive repositioning of its operations.

Bertelsmann Education Group once again recorded solid growth, including strong performance in continuing education, compliance management in the U.S. healthcare sector at Relias, and medical training in Brazil at Afya. In May 2025, Afya completed its acquisition of Faculdade Masterclass Ltda. (“Faculdade Única de Contagem”), increasing the number of medical students at Afya to more than 25,000.

Bertelsmann Investments held 313 investments in companies and funds worldwide as of the end of September and made 32 new and 19 follow-on investments since the beginning of the year. These included a new investment in the Indian fresh-commerce startup Handpickd and a follow-on investment in the social commerce platform Rozana, which delivers everyday goods in rural India. At Bertelsmann Next, the mobile ad-tech company AppLike continued to post strong growth.

Bertelsmann CFO Rolf Hellermann said: “We expect stable revenues for the full year 2025. Operating EBITDA adjusted is likely to be moderately lower, largely reflecting the weaker U.S. dollar, the absence of revenue and earnings contributions from RTL Nederland from the second half onward, and the pronounced decline in TV advertising markets in Germany and France.”

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services, and education company with about 75,000 employees that operates in some 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group, and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company generated revenues of €19 billion in the 2024 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world.