RTL Group Delivers Streaming Subscriber Gains

RTL Group saw the number of paying subscribers for its streaming services TV Now and Videoland rise by 71 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

The company reported revenues of €1.4 billion ($1.7 billion) in the quarter, a 4.2 percent fall from last year. Fremantle contributed €433 million ($522 million), a 14.6 percent improvement. Ad revenues fell to €745 million ($899 million). Streaming revenues from TV Now and Videoland were up 40.5 percent to €52 million ($63 million) from 2.72 million paying subs (1.7 million at TV Now and 1 million at Videoland).

“Our streaming services TV Now and Videoland accelerated their growth, adding more than half a million new paying subscribers in the first three months of the year,” said CEO Thomas Rabe. “This demonstrates how our streaming investments in content, marketing and technology—and our strategic partnerships—boost our progress towards creating national streaming champions. With new high-end drama series and a broad portfolio of entertainment shows, our global content business, Fremantle, had a strong start to the year.”

Rabe continued, “Driven by our streaming and content production business, RTL Group’s revenue was up by almost 4 per cent organically in the first quarter—although lockdown measures led to lower TV advertising revenue. We see strong growth of our TV advertising revenue across our footprint for the second quarter of the year and confirm our outlook for the full year 2021.”

Rabe concluded, “As stated before, there is a strong case for consolidation in the European broadcasting industry. We are currently reviewing such options for our broadcasting businesses in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, with a view to creating value for our shareholders. There can be no certainty that this may lead to any type of agreement or transaction.”

For the full year, RTL is projecting revenues of €6.2 billion ($7.5 billion).