• Q1/2024: Group revenue¹ up 2.6 per cent to €1.3 billion, driven by significantly higher TV advertising and streaming revenue, partly offset by lower content revenue due to timing; Group revenue up 4.1 per cent organically
  
  
• TV advertising revenue up 10.0 per cent in Q1/2024
  
  
• Continued dynamic growth of RTL Group’s streaming services: paying subscribers up 24.2 per cent year on year to 6.0 million, streaming revenue up 41.0 per cent in Q1/2024
  
  
• RTL Group’s family of TV channels in Germany with TV advertising market and audience share gains, extending the lead over ProSiebenSat1 to 8 percentage points
  
  
• Full-year outlook for 2024 confirmed

CEO's quote

Revenue

Group revenue was up 2.6 per cent to €1,318 million (Q1/2023: €1,285 million), mainly driven by higher TV advertising revenue and streaming revenue at RTL Deutschland, partly offset by lower Fremantle revenue. Group revenue was up 4.1 per cent organically².

RTL Group’s total advertising revenue increased by 10.1 per cent to €686 million (Q1/2023: €623 million), of which €528 million represented TV advertising revenue (Q1/2023: €480 million), €80 million digital advertising revenue (Q1/2023: €70 million) and €77 million radio, print and other advertising revenue (Q1/2023: €72 million).

RTL Group’s content revenue, generated by the Group’s global content business, Fremantle, was down 9.2 per cent to €395 million (Q1/2023: €435 million), due to timing effects in the UK, Italy and Germany. In Q2/2024, Fremantle will deliver major productions such as the second season of The Responder and the new real-time thriller series Nightsleeper for the BBC in the UK as well as season 19 of America’s Got Talent for NBC and Race To Survive: New Zealand for the USA Network in the US.

Streaming revenue³ was up 41.0 per cent to €86 million (Q1/2023: €61 million), driven by a significantly higher number of paying subscribers and increased subscription prices in Germany.

RTL Group’s distribution revenue⁴ was up 8.6 per cent to €88 million (Q1/2023: €81 million).

Net debt

As of 31 March 2024, RTL Group held net debt of €-545 million⁵ (31 December 2023: net debt of €-291 million). On 29 April 2024, RTL Group paid out the dividend for 2023 (€2.75 per share) amounting to €426 million.

TV markets

Net TV advertising market growth rates and RTL Group audience shares in main target groups

RTL Group estimates that net TV advertising markets were up in Germany and France in the first quarter of 2024. A summary is shown below, including estimates of net TV advertising market growth rates and the audience shares in the main target audience group.

Operational highlights

RTL Group’s strategic framework remains unchanged: strengthening the Group’s core businesses, expanding its growth businesses, and fostering alliances and partnerships in the European media industry.

Core

In the first three months of 2024, RTL Deutschland’s combined audience share in the main commercial target group of viewers aged 14 to 59 increased to 28.1 per cent (Q1/2023: 27.7 per cent), extending the lead over ProSiebenSat1 to 8.0 percentage points (Q1/2023: lead of 6.5 percentage points). The main channel RTL achieved an average audience share of 10.9 per cent (Q1/2023: 10.5 per cent), the best start to a year since 2020.

The combined audience share of Groupe M6’s free-to-air channels in the commercial target group of viewers aged 25 to 49 was 20.6 per cent (Q1/2023: 21.0 per cent).

In March 2024, Groupe M6 announced its acquisition of the exclusive free-to-air TV rights for the majority of the matches of the Fifa World Cup in 2026 and 2030 – representing 54 matches for each tournament. This significant investment strengthens Groupe M6’s event-based, free-to-air sports offering and its streaming service M6+.

Growth

By the end of March 2024, RTL Group’s streaming services RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and 6play¹⁰ in France had 6.0 million paying subscribers – an increase by 24.2 per cent year on year (end of March 2023: 4.8 million).

• Paying subscribers for RTL+ in Germany increased by 6 per cent year on year to 5.3 million (end of March 2023: 4.4 million). The partnership with Deutsche Telekom to bundle RTL+ Premium in Magenta TV continued to contribute significantly to the growth.
• RTL+ in Germany increased its video starts by 29.1 per cent year on year to a monthly average of 102 million in the first quarter of 2024. Usage of RTL+ increased by 45.1 per cent to a monthly average of 47.8 million hours. The average monthly podcast launches on RTL+ increased by 32.4 per cent compared to Q1/2023. For the audiobook and music offerings, March was the strongest month since launch in terms of number of plays.
• In March 2024, Groupe M6 presented its investment plan for its streaming service M6+ (replacing 6play). The additional investments of €100 million in content, technology and marketing will build up over time. The service will be primarily financed by advertising (AVOD), complemented by a premium subscription tier (SVOD). The service will run on the technology platform provided by Bedrock and is set to launch on 15 May 2024.

In February 2024, Fremantle acquired an 80 per cent stake in the Asian production company Beach House Pictures. The Singapore-based company operates in Japan, Korea and China as well as the US, UK and Europe, and is focused on non-scripted entertainment. This was followed by the full acquisition of Asacha Media Group in March 2024. The France-based European production group owns stakes in eight production companies in France, Italy and the UK. Asacha Media Group is diversified in geography, genre and its customer base, complementing Fremantle’s footprint in Europe and strengthening the company’s position as home to top and new talent.

Within its entertainment business, Fremantle launched the reality show Couple to Throuple for Peacock in the US, the talent show Rhythm and Flow for Netflix in Italy and the reality show Hot Mess Summer on Amazon Prime Video, alongside American Idol returning on ABC with its 22nd season. Within drama & film, Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions launched the comedy-drama Big Mood on Channel 4 in the UK and, following successful launches of series Alice & Jack on Channel 4 and Masterpiece in the US, Fremantle announced a first-look deal with BAFTA-winning independent producer Me+You Productions. Within its documentaries business, Fremantle launched the natural history series Queens on National Geographic and acquired the international sales rights to distribute the documentary Elizabeth Taylor: Rebel Superstar from Passion Pictures.

Alliances and partnerships

In April 2024, RTL Deutschland announced a strategic partnership with the production companies Wiedemann & Berg Film and Leonine Studios, which have produced or co-produced the most successful German films in cinemas for four consecutive years from 2020 to 2023. With a multi-year framework agreement, RTL Deutschland has secured the exclusive free-to-air TV and streaming rights to German film productions from the two companies.

In February 2024, RTL Deutschland and ProSiebenSat1 announced an advertising technology partnership which will bundle the services of their respective advertising technology businesses, Smartclip and Virtual Minds. This will enable advertisers to book advertising campaigns across all inventories – linear and non-linear, including the streaming services RTL+ and Joyn.

Outlook

RTL Group confirms its outlook presented on 14 March 2024:

The geopolitical and macroeconomic environment remains volatile, and the impact on RTL Group’s businesses continues to be hard to predict. On the basis of a slight recovery of the German TV advertising market and broadly stable advertising markets in the Group’s other territories,

• RTL Group expects its full-year revenue for 2024 to increase to around €6.6 billion, based on higher revenue from RTL Deutschland (mainly driven by strong growth in streaming revenue) and Fremantle (mainly driven by a recovery in the US market and acquisitions).
• RTL Group expects its Adjusted EBITA for 2024 to be around €750 million, with a variance of plus/minus €50 million, depending on the development of the German and French TV advertising markets in 2024. This Adjusted EBITA outlook includes higher content costs, primarily for the broadcast of Euro 2024 matches in France and Germany, and higher streaming start-up losses (2023: €176 million) primarily due to the investments in M6+ in France.
• RTL Group’s dividend policy remains unchanged: RTL Group plans to pay out at least 80 per cent of the adjusted full-year net result.

Profitability is expected by 2026¹².

Figures presented in this quarterly statement are not audited.