RTL Group’s families of TV channels in France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Croatia all gained TV advertising market shares.
Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland’s TV advertising market share was estimated to be approximately stable year-on-year.
Throughout 2013, European TV advertising markets reflected local macro-economic developments: the German TV advertising market was estimated to be slightly up, while all other markets were estimated to be down year-on-year. Over the second half of the year, market conditions improved in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain.
Reported Group revenue was down 1.8 % to €5,889 million (2012: €5,998 million), as higher revenues from RTL Nederland and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland were offset by lower revenue from FremantleMedia and exchange rate effects.
RTL Group’s digital revenues continued to show very dynamic growth, up 26% to €236 million thanks to organic growth and new acquisitions.
EBITA increased 6.9% to €1,152 million (2012: €1,078 million), primarily driven by significantly higher profit contributions from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland
Reported EBITA margin improved significantly to 19.6% (2012: 18.0%)
Net profit attributable to RTL Group shareholders increased strongly by 45.7 per cent to €870 million (2012: €597 million). The increase reflects higher EBITA and the following positive one-off effects: a reversal of an 2012 impairment, totalling €72 million, on RTL Group’s shareholding in the Spanish broadcasting company Atresmedia (formerly Grupo Antena 3), as announced in the Group’s half-year results on 22 August 2013 and the gain from disposal of non-monetary investments amounting to €49 million.
Net cash from operating activities was €1,121 million, resulting in an operating cash conversion of 106 per cent and a net cash position of €36 million at the end of 2013 (30 September 2013: net financial debt of €451 million)
During the presentation of the 2013 results, RTL said that TV channels in Europe strengthen RTL Group’s family of channels. In total, RTL Group will have launched six new channels in Europe in the period 2012 to 2014.
In France, Groupe M6’s new free-TV channel, 6ter, has become the leading channel in the commercial target group among the six DTT channels launched in December 2012.
In August 2013, RTL Hrvatska was awarded a license for a new kids and family channel; the new free-TV channel, named RTL Kockica, was launched very successfully in January 2014. In February, the channel scored an average daytime audience share of 21.8 per cent among children.
In October 2013, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland announced plans to launch a new special-interest pay-TV channel called Geo Television. It is scheduled for launch on May 8, 2014.
RTL Group’s catch-up TV services and websites, including BroadbandTV, attracted a total 16.8 billion online video views in 2013, up 143% year-on-year. Thereof, FremantleMedia’s more than 140 Youtube channels attracted 6.7 billion views, up 49$, while mobile video views increased by 59 per cent in Germany, by 57% in France and by 176% in the Netherlands.
