Advanced Television

RTL Q1 up 8.4%

May 16, 2013

RTL Group, Europe’s largest commercial broadcaster, continues to see healthy profits despite the plummeting Euro ad market.

The group, which is controlled by Germany’s Bertelsmann, posted operating profits (EBITA) of €207 million for the first quarter of this year, an 8.4 per cent increase over Q1 2012 and the company’s best-ever Q1 result. Revenue over the same period was flat, up just 0.5 percent at €1.33 billion.

“We’ve had a solid start to the year, with our best ever first quarter EBITA and high levels of net profit and cash conversion,” said RTL Group’s co-CEOs Anke Schaferkordt and Guillaume de Posch in a joint statement. ”Performance in Germany has been particularly strong and our other businesses are resilient facing the current economic conditions”.

Germany provided RTL with the bulk of its profits. EBITA at the company’s German operations, Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland were up 23 per cent at €134 million, the best ever Q1 performance for the division.

Categories: Articles, Business, Results