Revenue Down at RTL Group

LUXEMBOURG: For its third quarter, RTL Group posted a 22.7-percent increase in EBITA to 92 million euros, on revenues that were down 5 percent to 1.13 billion euros.

This growth in EBITA was driven by higher contributions from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, M6, RTL Nederland, RTL Radio in France and Five. RTL Group also credits its performance to cost cutting within its core TV broadcasting businesses, where operating costs fell by 289 million euros compared to last year. But the weakened ad market did impact revenues, which were down by 5 percent. The company said that since September, "advertising bookings have been better in almost all of RTL Group’s markets." Nonetheless, RTL is "cautious" about the remainder of the year.