Digital Delivers for RTL Group in Full-Year Results

LUXEMBOURG: RTL Group’s digital revenue continued to show dynamic growth in 2014, though overall revenue for the group was relatively flat for the full year.

Reported group revenue was stable at 5.81 billion euros ($6.4 billion). Higher revenue from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and from acquisitions—consolidation of BroadbandTV, SpotXchange and 495 Productions—was offset by lower advertising sales in France, the effect of the disposal of the French e-commerce service Mistergooddeal along with lower revenue from FremantleMedia and UFA Sports.

EBITA was also stable, at 1.15 billion euros ($1.27 billion), primarily driven by a significantly higher profit contribution from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland.

Digital revenue for the group was up 26.6 percent to 295 million euros ($325 million).

FremantleMedia’s EBITA decreased from 136 million euros ($150 million) reported in 2013 to 113 million euros ($125 million). This was due in part to the cancelation of The X Factor USA, lower revenue from American Idol and increased investments in digital businesses and the content pipeline.

Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch, co-CEOs of RTL Group, said in a joint statement: “Despite challenging environments in France and Hungary, RTL Group once again delivered a very strong set of financial results. Our EBITA remained at the previous year’s record level and the EBITA margin was again close to 20 percent.

We made significant progress in implementing our strategy across broadcast, content and digital. We successfully launched three new TV channels and further established a second revenue stream from platform operators which delivers high growth rates and profit margins. We invested more than €240 million in rapidly growing digital businesses. This is the highest investment level for acquisitions since 2005.

Over the past two years, our total online video views soared from 7 billion to over 36 billion. RTL Group now owns majority stakes in the number 3 global multi-channel network, BroadbandTV; the number 1 network for fashion, beauty and lifestyle, StyleHaul; the number 1 European MCN, Divimove; and one of the top 5 global platforms for programmatic video advertising, SpotXchange. We are confident that these businesses, with additional investments, will reach such scale over the next 24 months that they become one of the growth drivers of RTL Group’s total revenue.”

Looking ahead to 2015, RTL Group said it expects its total revenue and EBITA for the full year to be broadly stable.