{"id":5898,"date":"2017-11-09T17:14:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/member-news\/rtl-groups-german-and-french-businesses-drive-record-q3-results\/"},"modified":"2017-11-09T17:14:58","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T16:14:58","slug":"rtl-groups-german-and-french-businesses-drive-record-q3-results","status":"publish","type":"member-news","link":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/member-news\/rtl-groups-german-and-french-businesses-drive-record-q3-results\/","title":{"rendered":"RTL Group\u2019s German and French businesses drive record Q3 results"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 id='s-rtl-groups-german-and-french-businesses-drive-record-q3-results'>RTL Group\u2019s German and French businesses drive record Q3 results<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Q3\/2017: revenue up 1.5 percent; EBITDA up 17.4 percent<\/li>\n<li>Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and Groupe M6 with strong double-digit EBITDA growth in Q3\/2017<\/li>\n<li>January to September 2017: revenue up 2.8 percent to \u20ac4,350 million; adjusted EBITDA1 up 3.4 percent reported EBITDA slightly down<\/li>\n<li>Full-year EBITDA outlook lifted<\/li>\n<li>Combination of SpotX and Smartclip into one integrated ad-tech company<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='s-q3-2017-rtl-group-clearly-outperforms-german-and-french-tv-advertising-markets'>Q3\/2017: RTL Group clearly outperforms German and French TV advertising markets<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In the third quarter of 2017, reported Group revenue was up 1.5 percent to \u20ac1,372 million (Q3\/2016: \u20ac1,352 million), mostly due to higher revenue from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and Groupe M6<\/li>\n<li>EBITDA was up strongly by 17.4 percent to \u20ac263 million (Q3\/2016: \u20ac224 million), driven by the strong performances in Germany and France: Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland\u2019s EBITDA was up 23.9 percent, while Groupe M6 increased its EBITDA by 36.5 percent<\/li>\n<li>Net profit attributable to RTL Group shareholders increased by 11.8 percent to \u20ac114 million (Q3\/2016: \u20ac102 million)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='s-january-to-september-2017-total-video-strategy-fuels-revenue-growth'><strong>January to September 2017: total video strategy fuels revenue growth<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Reported Group revenue increased by 2.8 percent to \u20ac4,350 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac4,230 million), reaching a new record level. This was driven by higher revenue from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland, Groupe M6 and RTL Group\u2019s rapidly growing digital businesses<\/li>\n<li>RTL Group\u2019s digital revenue2 continued to show very dynamic growth, up 30.2 percent to \u20ac560 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac430 million). This was mainly driven by organic growth at BroadbandTV and StyleHaul, the sale of American Gods to streaming service Amazon Prime Video and the first-time full consolidation of Smartclip and Divimov<\/li>\n<li>RTL Group\u2019s revenue is well diversified with 47.7 percent from TV advertising, 18.7 percent from content, 12.9 percent from digital activities, 5.4 percent from platform revenue, 4.0 percent from radio advertising and 11.3 percent other revenue<\/li>\n<li>Reported EBITDA was down 1.6 percent to \u20ac889 million for the first nine months of 2017 (January to September 2016: \u20ac903 million), mainly due to the positive one-off effect at Groupe M6 amounting to \u20ac43 million in 2016. Adjusted for this one-off effect, EBITDA was up 3.4 percent<\/li>\n<li>Reported EBITDA margin was at 20.4 percent (January to September 2016: 21.3 percent; adjusted for the one-off effect: 20.3 percent<\/li>\n<li>Accordingly, net profit attributable to RTL Group shareholders was slightly down year-on-year to \u20ac434 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac443 million)<\/li>\n<li>Net cash from operating activities was \u20ac387 million, leading to a decreased operating cash conversion of 76 percent (January to September 2016: 93 percent)<\/li>\n<li>Following the payment of an interim dividend of \u20ac154 million on 7 September 2017, RTL Group had net financial debt of \u20ac1,097 million as of 30 September 2017 (30 June 2017: \u20ac1,000 million; 31 December 2016: \u20ac576 million)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='s-outlook'>Outlook<\/h2>\n<p>RTL Group lifts its EBITDA outlook for 2017 and confirms its revenue outlook for the full year 2017 (most recently communicated on 30 August 2017), assuming there will not be major changes in the economic climate across RTL Group\u2019s markets:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>RTL Group continues to expect its total revenue for the fiscal year 2017 to grow moderately (+2.5 percent to +5.0 percent), driven by the Group\u2019s digital businesses and Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland<\/li>\n<li>At the same time, RTL Group\u2019s reported EBITDA for the full year 2017 is now expected to be slightly up (+1.0 percent to +2.5 percent) based on the strong Q3 performance and the planned sale of RTL Group\u2019s buildings in Rue Bayard, Paris, that will positively impact the Group\u2019s EBITDA in Q4\/2017 (previously: broadly stable)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='s-strong-core-business-drives-record-results'>\u201cStrong core business drives record results\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Joint statement from Guillaume de Posch and Bert Habets, Co-Chief Executive Officers of RTL Group:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the third quarter, RTL Group once again demonstrated the healthy state of its core business. As indicated at the end of August, our families of channels in Germany and France continued to outperform their respective TV advertising market significantly. This drove RTL Group\u2019s best ever third quarter revenue and operating profit.<\/p>\n<p>We act from a position of strength and will keep up this momentum in the fourth quarter, heading for another set of strong full-year results. We continue to invest in exclusive programming to ensure that our channels and on-demand services have the most attractive proposition for both viewers and advertisers.<\/p>\n<p>As we announced end of August, we are accelerating the execution of our Total Video strategy. This includes an ambitious growth plan for our ad-tech businesses with the main goal to create a global and independent monetisation platform for broadcasters, video-on-demand services and publishers. We are very happy to report that over recent months SpotX and Smartclip have made significant progress in expanding their collaboration. We have now decided to combine both companies into one integrated ad-tech company by the end of 2018. We will roll out the platform across our operations and scale it up with further acquisitions and partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id='s-segments-mediengruppe-rtl-deutschland-clearly-outperforming-german-advertising-market'>Segments: Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland clearly outperforming German advertising market<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>During the first nine months of 2017, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland\u2019s EBITDA increased by 4.8 percent to \u20ac500 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac477 million). This improvement was mainly driven by higher TV and digital advertising and platform revenue. In Q3\/2017, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland\u2019s EBITDA was up 23.9 percent, also profiting from higher advertising and platform revenue<\/li>\n<li>Groupe M6\u2019s EBITDA was down by 4.4 percent \u20ac258 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac270 million), mainly due to the positive one-off effect from the gradual phase-out of the M6 Mobile contract in 2016. Adjusted for this one-off effect, EBITDA was up 13.7 percent. In Q3\/2017, Groupe M6\u2019s EBITDA was up by 36.5 percent thanks to the combined effect of the solid performance of the television division and the positive balance from the transfer of Girondins de Bordeaux players at the end of the season<\/li>\n<li>FremantleMedia\u2019s EBITDA was down 1.6 percent to \u20ac60 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac61 million), mainly due to start-up losses from digital operations. Revenue, however, was up by 2.2 percent to \u20ac983 million in the first nine months of 2017 (January to September 2016: \u20ac962 million)<\/li>\n<li>RTL Nederland\u2019s EBITDA was down to \u20ac46 million (January to September 2016: \u20ac60 million), mainly due to lower TV advertising revenue<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='s-reach-more-with-total-video'>Reach more with Total Video<\/h2>\n<h3 id='s-more-ad-tech'>More ad tech<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>On 2 October 2017, RTL Group closed the transaction to take full ownership of SpotX and acquired the remaining 36.4 percent shareholding for a total amount of USD 139.2 million, subject to a cash\/debt adjustment, of which USD 7.7 million have been contributed to SpotX. Following this step, RTL Group pursues an ambitious growth plan for its ad-tech businesses with the main goal to create a global and independent monetisation platform for broadcasters, video-on-demand services and publishers<\/li>\n<li>To accelerate the execution of this plan, RTL Group has decided to combine SpotX and Smartclip into one integrated ad-tech company by the end of 2018, to roll out the platform across the Group&rsquo;s operations and to scale it up with further acquisitions and partnerships<\/li>\n<li>The combined entity will focus on ad-server development, addressable TV, bringing dynamic ad-insertion capabilities in-house and close collaboration with the Group&rsquo;s minority shareholdings, VideoAmp and Clypd \u2013 positioning the company as an innovation leader among independent ad-tech platforms<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3 id='s-more-cross-media'>More cross-media<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Following the approvals of the French media regulator CSA (\u201cConseil sup\u00e9rieur de l\u2019audiovisuel\u201d) and the completion of the employee consultations, RTL Group and Groupe M6 closed the regrouping of the Group\u2019s French radio operations into Groupe M6 on 2 October 2017. The purchase agreement provides for a price of \u20ac199.8 million, as announced in May 2017. RTL Group\u2019s voting rights in Groupe M6 will be aligned to its economic shareholding of 48.26 percent in Groupe M6 with effect as of 1 January 2018<\/li>\n<li>As already announced in February 2016, Groupe M6\u2019s radio business is currently relocating from Rue Bayard, Paris, to Neuilly-sur-Seine and will finalise the relocation in the first quarter of 2018. RTL Group has signed a binding agreement to sell its buildings in Rue Bayard for \u20ac113.9 million and will receive 85 percent of the proceeds in 2017. Consequently, RTL Group expects a substantial positive EBITDA impact from this transaction in Q4\/2017<br \/>\nMore exclusive programming<\/li>\n<li>On 13 November 2017 at 20:15, Vox will premiere the third and final season of their signature series Club der roten B\u00e4nder. As of 10 November, the first two episodes of the audience favourite will be available exclusively on TV Now ahead of the TV broadcast<\/li>\n<li>FremantleMedia continued to invest in the creative pipeline and acquired 75 percent stake in Easy Tiger Productions, an Australian TV production company focused on prime-time scripted drama series. In October, the company also acquired a 25 percent stake in the fast-growing independent UK production company, Label 1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rtlgroup.com\">www.rtlgroup.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-5891\" src=\"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/rtl_logo-480x282.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/rtl_logo-480x282.png 480w, https:\/\/fedil.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/rtl_logo-150x88.png 150w, https:\/\/fedil.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/rtl_logo-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/fedil.lu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/rtl_logo.png 591w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-5898","member-news","type-member-news","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-news\/5898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/member-news"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-news\/5898\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fedil.lu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}