RTL Group Lowers 2024 Projections

RTL Group has revised its 2024 revenue forecast amid a weaker ad market in Germany and slowing growth in the production landscape.

The European giant had previously expected 2024 revenues of €6.6 billion ($7 billion); that has been lowered to €6.3 billion ($6.7 billion).

“We are accelerating RTL Group’s transformation in a challenging economic environment,” said CEO Thomas Rabe. “Our streaming services continue to grow dynamically in all key dimensions: number of paying subscribers, viewing hours, subscription and advertising revenue. At the current pace, we are confident to reach the 7 million paying subscribers mark by the end of the year and remain on track to reach our long-term streaming targets and thus profitability by 2026.”

For the first nine months of the year, revenues were flat at €4.2 billion ($4.4 billion), while in Q3 they fell by 5.5 percent to €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion).

Ad revenues for the company overall in the first nine months were up by 3 percent to €2.1 billion ($2.2 billion), with TV rising 2.3 percent to €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) and digital up by the same percentage to €262 million ($277 million). In Q3, however, advertising was down 2.4 percent to €677 million ($716 million), with digital flat while TV fell by 2.3 percent to €519 million ($549 million).

For the first nine months, Fremantle’s revenues were down by 7.1 percent to €1.4 billion ($1.5 billion).

Streaming revenues gained by almost 41 percent to €277 million ($293 million) amid subs gains, higher prices and increasing ad revenues. As at the end of September, RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and M6+ in France had 6.5 million paying subscribers, an increase of 22.8 percent year on year. RTL+ subs rose by almost 25 percent to 5.8 million.