ProSiebenSat.1 Posts Revenue & Earnings Growth in Q3

MUNICH: ProSiebenSat.1 Group had a healthy third quarter, with revenues up by 15 percent to 857 million euros ($949 million) and recurring EBITDA increasing 13 percent to 202 million euros ($224 million).

Underlying net income also increased significantly, up 11 percent to 87 million euros ($96 million).

In the broadcasting German-speaking segment, external revenues increased by 2 percent, while recurring EBITDA was up by 7 percent. In the digital entertainment segment, revenues saw a nice lift. Despite the deconsolidation of the online games business, external revenues grew by 23 percent in the third quarter, and recurring EBITDA was in line with the prior year. Growth was primarily driven by the AVOD business with the multi-channel network Studio71. External revenues in the digital ventures and commerce segment surged 44 percent, and at the same time, earnings grew significantly, with recurring EBITDA up by 14 percent.

The content production and global sales segment continued to see strong gains. External revenues rose by 34 percent in the third quarter to 100 million euros ($110 million) and recurring EBITDA increased to 11 million euros ($12 million), up from the year-ago’s 5 million euros ($5.5 million).

Thomas Ebeling, the CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, commented: “We are making very good progress with the transformation of our company from a TV house to a digital player. In the first nine months, we already generated 46 percent of our revenues outside the traditional TV advertising business. We consistently forge ahead with this development. With the strong TV business as the basis and the digital entertainment, commerce and production activities, we are well positioned to achieve our goals. By 2018, we aim to achieve revenues of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) with our digital business.”