Advanced Television

RTL digital revenue up 26.6%

March 5, 2015

By Chris Forrester

Europe’s major international broadcaster, RTL, reported its Q4 and full year numbers on March 5. Its EBITA for Q4 rose 7.1 per cent to €466 million, although the company admitted that its full year revenues were “stable” (and fell a modest 0.3 per cent to €5.808 billion, from €5.824 billion). Net profit for the year also fell back from €870 million to €653 million.

“Higher revenue from Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and from acquisitions (consolidation of

BroadbandTV, SpotXchange and 495 Productions) was offset by lower advertising sales in France, the effect of the disposal of the French e-commerce service Mistergooddeal along with lower revenue from FremantleMedia and UFA Sports,” said RTL.

RTL Group’s digital revenues “continued to show very dynamic growth”, up 26.6 per cent to €295 million (up from €233m) and “benefitting from organic growth and new acquisitions”.

In September last year, RTL Group completed the acquisition of a 65 per cent majority stake in the video advertising platform SpotXchange for a cash [payment] of €104 million. Over 3 billion video ad decisions are now processed through the SpotXchange platform daily. “The investment has significantly strengthened RTL Group’s global scale across the entire online video advertising market and adds new technology- and database competencies,” said the broadcaster.

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