TV advertising market conditions in the first quarter remained challenging, in line with local macro-economic developments. Looking across the Group’s larger markets, RTL Group estimates that only the German TV advertising market was up by 1.3%, while other markets were down.
Reported RTL Group revenue of €1,329 million, up 0.5%. This reflects slightly higher revenue at Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and the sale of the Handball World Cup rights in January 2013 by UFA Sports.
RTL Group has a strong and rapidly growing presence across all digital platforms. In the first quarter of 2013 RTL Group’s video services and websites attracted a total 1.9 billion online video views, up 40%.
FremantleMedia’s 135 Youtube channels attracted 1.2 billion views, up 86%, during Q1. Online video advertising was up 37% in Germany, 26% in France, 51% in the Netherlands year-on-year.
EBITA of Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland increased by 22.9% to €134 million – the best ever first-quarter operating profit for RTL Group’s largest profit centre
Despite a significantly decreasing French TV advertising market, estimated to be down 10.8% in the first quarter, Groupe M6’s EBITA reached €60 million (Q1/2012: €63 million)
Revenue of RTL Nederland was up year-on-year, at €92 million (Q1/2012: €90 million), while EBITA was slightly down to €4 million (Q1/2012: €5 million)
FremantleMedia’s revenue decreased to €303 million (Q1/2012: €311 million), mainly due to phasing effects in Germany, the UK, Australia and at Radical Media. Accordingly, EBITA decreased to €10 million (Q1/2012: €13 million).
