News | RTL Group | Luxembourg, 08/08/2023

RTL Group Announces Its Reviewed Results For The First Half Of 2023

RTL Group has presented its reviewed results for the first half of 2023. According to the figures, total revenues fell by 5.1 percent to €3.1 billion due to challenging TV advertising markets, particularly in Germany. Consolidated net income was €132 million (first half of 2022: €304 million).

To strengthen its leading market positions, boost its growth businesses and drive transformation, RTL Group maintained its investments in content, streaming, tech & data at a high level in H1/2023. In H1/2023, RTL Group spent €1.1 billion on content for its broadcasting and streaming activities, on the high level of the first half of 2022. Streaming start-up losses amounted to €87 million (H1/2022: €74 million), due to higher investments in RTL+ in Germany and Hungary. Group revenue was down 5.1 per cent to €3,109 million (H1/2022: €3,276 million), mainly due to significantly lower TV advertising revenue. Group revenue was down 4.3 per cent organically.

RTL Group’s TV advertising revenue decreased 12.5 per cent to €1,187 million (H1/2022: €1,357 million), in particular in Germany. Compared to the first half of 2019 (pre-Covid), RTL Group’s TV advertising was down 15.5 per cent. RTL Group expects its TV advertising revenue to grow slightly in the second half of 2023 compared to 2022, which was marked by significant negative effects from the football World Cup in Qatar. In Germany, RTL Group’s TV advertising revenue was broadly stable year on year in June and July.

Streaming revenue from RTL+ and Videoland was up 16.9 per cent to €152 million (H1/2022: €130 million). Distribution revenue was stable at €219 million (H1/2022: €220 million). Adjusted EBITA declined to €250 million (H1/2022: €501 million) mainly due to significantly lower profit contributions from RTL Deutschland. The Adjusted EBITA margin was 8.0 per cent (H1/2022: 15.3 per cent). Adjusted EBITA before streaming start-up losses was down to €337 million (H1/2022: €575 million). Adjusted EBITDA was €376 million (H1/2022: €611 million). Group profit was €132 million (H1/2022: €304 million). Net cash used in operating activities was at €-24 million (H1/2022: net cash from operating activities €84 million), due to significant investments in RTL Group’s streaming services and the more capital-intense scripted business at Fremantle. On 30 June 2023, RTL Group had net debt of €-702 million (31 December 2022: net cash of €180 million). On 2 May 2023, RTL Group paid out the dividend for 2022 (€4.00 per share) amounting to €619 million.

“Investing into business transformation”

Thomas Rabe, Chief Executive Officer of RTL Group: “The market environment in the first half of 2023 was particularly challenging, with geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties in addition to the long-term structural shifts in video viewing. The RTL Group team remains focused on bringing our strategy to life: strengthening our core business, growing our streaming and content businesses, and building alliances and partnerships. Based on our strong balance sheet, we are investing into business transformation through the cycle – in premium content, leading national streaming services and in advertising technology.
Technology plays a key role in our transformation, and we see great opportunities from Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular to increase efficiency and generate content. Today, we already apply AI at scale in advertising planning and have started to support content creation with generative AI. We are convinced that investing through the cycle will put us in a strong competitive position when the advertising markets recover. The half-year results came in broadly in line with our expectations. Although we are seeing first signs of market stabilisation in Germany in particular, we have adjusted our outlook for the full year 2023. RTL Group now expects an Adjusted EBITA of around €950 million after streaming start-up losses of around €200 million.”

For more information please refer to the attached RTL Group press release.