RTL Group reported on Monday revenue rose 4 percent reaching a record €6 billion (US$7.84 billion) in 2012 but profits of €690 million (US$901.58 million) were down 13.2 percent from €795 million (US$1.038 billion) last year.
Europe's largest private television group, RTL said for the third consecutive year it generated an EBITA of more than €1 billion (US$1.31 billion), despite an increasingly challenging economic environment. Its EBITA decreased 4.9 percent to €1.078 billion (US$1.41 billion) as higher profit from the German TV operations was offset by lower results in other countries.
It said net profit attributable to RTL Group shareholders dropped to €597 million (US$780.18 billion), compared to €696 million (US$909.52 million) in 2011, equivalent to €3.88 per share (US$5.069) or €4.53 (US$5.92) per share last year.
RTL said the depressed economic conditions in Europe throughout 2012 sharply reduced TV advertising markets. Although the German TV advertising market was slightly up, the French, Dutch and Belgian markets were all down while markets in Spain, Hungary and Croatia continued to experience a more pronounced decline. Ironically, 44 percent of RTL Group’s revenue originates from a broad range of non-advertising activities such as content production, rights trading, teleshopping, e-commerce, and merchandising.
Despite its gloomy market, RTL said its largest profit centers achieved a record result in 2012. It cited Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, which achieved a combined audience share of 33.7 percent among young viewers aged 14 to 49, and remained the clear market leader, 5.9 percentage points ahead of its main commercial competitor. EBITA increased by 9.8 percent to €581 million (US$759 million) – the best ever full-year operating profit for RTL Group’s largest profit centers.
In France, RTL’s M6 was again the only major French channel to increase its total audience share year-on-year. As a result, the combined total audience share of Groupe M6 grew to 15.5 percent. EBITA of Groupe M6, however, decreased to €224 million (US$292.7 million) as a result of lower advertising revenue and programming investment related to the Euro 2012 football championship.
The company said RTL Nederland attracted a combined prime time audience share of 32.3 percent in the commercial target group, with a significant lead of 12.3 percentage points over its main commercial competitor. Following record results in 2011, EBITA decreased to €97 million (US$126.7 million) due to a weaker TV advertising market and scope changes resulting from the exit of the Dutch radio stations
In total, RTL Group launched five new TV channels in 2012 – a significant investment to further strengthen the broadcasting business. RTL Group’s online platforms and on-demand offers across Europe collectively generated more than 2.4 billion video views of professionally produced content in 2012 – up 25 per cent year-on-year
Anke Schäferkordt and Guillaume de Posch, co-Chief Executive Officers of RTL Group said RTL Group has once again demonstrated that it can operate successfully even in a very challenging economic environment.
“For the third consecutive year, our EBITA exceeded €1 billion. Our EBITA margin was very healthy at 18.0 per cent and our largest profit centre, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, achieved a new record EBITA of €581 million (US$759 million).”
They added that during 2012, RTL Group successfully launched five new TV channels. “We are also building a strong and rapidly growing presence in non-linear TV and exploring the field of online video networks, with our first Youtube channels produced by FremantleMedia,” they said.
