RTL Group revenue was up 9.5% to €1,432 million (Q1/2015: €1,308 million), mainly driven by higher revenue from FremantleMedia, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and its rapidly growing digital businesses.
“RTL Group has recorded a very strong first quarter following the positive performance of our broadcasting business all over Europe. FremantleMedia also positively contributed to the extraordinary result, mainly due to last year’s acquisitions and improved results in all major markets,” said Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch, Co-Chief Executive Officers, in a joint statement.
“However, as stated in prior years, the first quarter is not necessarily an indicator for the full year, especially in heavy sports years such as 2016. We expect that TV advertising revenue will be geared towards the first half of year, as advertisers shift their spend due to big sporting events. Accordingly, RTL Group maintains its outlook for the full year 2016 and expects total revenue to increase moderately and EBITA to be broadly stable.
“With the acquisition of Smartclip, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland will significantly expand its capabilities in digital advertising sales and thus complements our growth strategy: In Germany the reach of our portfolio, and thus our advertising inventory, will grow substantially. At the same time the transaction strengthens our technological capabilities in Europe and offers opportunities globally for innovation in cooperation with SpotX.”
RTL Group’s families of channels in the Group’s core broadcasting markets – Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium – gained audiences shares year-on-year during the first quarter of 2016
In March, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland announced the launch of two new linear TV channels – both are scheduled to launch on June 4, 2016: RTL Plus will offer a mix of entertainment programmes comprising popular classics and game shows. Toggo Plus – Germany’s first free-to-air time-shift channel – will give viewers a second chance to watch all of Super RTL’s children’s programmes again, exactly one hour after their initial airing.
In May, RTL II will launch RTL II You, an online channel offering both on-demand content and linear streaming – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The channel will mainly target 14 to 25-year-olds and focus on issues of interest to younger viewers.
RTL Group’s digital revenue1 continued to show very dynamic growth, up 36.4% to €120 million (Q1/2015: €88 million).
RTL Group’s catch-up TV services, websites and MCNs attracted a total 58.4 billion online video views, up 212% year-on-year (Q1/2015: 18.7 billion). FremantleMedia’s more than 240 Youtube channels attracted 3.9
billion views, up 44.4% year-on-year (Q1/2015: 2.7 billion). RTL Group now generates more than 19 billion online video views per month.
The digital businesses that make up RTL Digital Hub – BroadbandTV, StyleHaul and SpotX – continued to show strong revenue growth. Comparing Q1/2016 with Q1/2015: BroadbandTV was up 143%, StyleHaul was up 29% and SpotX was up 13%.
Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, Groupe M6 and RTL Nederland reported doubledigit online video advertising revenue growth rates. Comparing Q1/2016 with Q1/2015: RTL Deutschland was up 22%, Groupe M6 was up 22% and RTL Nederland was up 60%.
