RTL Group Records Growth in Q3

LUXEMBOURG: A surge in digital revenues and gains at its German and Dutch operations and at FremantleMedia contributed to a 7.5-percent boost in revenues at the RTL Group in the third quarter.

For the period, revenues were 1.35 billion euros ($1.46 billion), with net profit rising by almost 10 percent to reach 113 million euros ($122 million). The company said that digital revenues jumped by 86.6 percent to 125 million euros ($135 million). At Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, revenues were up by 6.8 percent. RTL Nederland saw a 15.4 percent gain. FremantleMedia's revenues were up 5 percent.

For the first nine months of the year, the group recorded revenues of 4.1 billion euros ($4.4 billion), a new record, delivering a net profit of 464 million euros ($500 million), a 52.1 percent increase on the same period last year. RTL Group said that with the exception of the Netherlands, its operations across Europe reported improved or stable ad revenues. EBITA was up by 9.3 percent at its German operations, but fell at M6, FremantleMedia, RTL Nederland and RTL Hungary,

In a joint statement, co-CEOs Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch said: “During the first nine months of 2015, RTL Group significantly increased revenue, EBITA and net profit, mainly driven by the strong performance of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland. The third quarter 2015 was particularly positive, with revenue and EBITA for RTL Group at record levels. This is a very encouraging basis for another successful full year, despite the challenging comparatives in the fourth quarter. Looking at our revenue split, digital is now accountable for 8 percent of RTL Group’s total revenue. For us, TV does not stand for television alone anymore, but for ‘total video’—and we have built leading market positions across the whole value chain of this total video market. Investments in broadcast, content and digital are transforming our leading European entertainment network into a global force in video production, aggregation and monetization."

The company is expecting full-year revenues to be "moderately up" on last year.