Advanced Television

Mediaset H1 best performance in 2 years

September 16, 2021

From Branislav Pekic in Rome

Italy’s Mediaset Group reported net revenues of €1.38 billion for the first half of 2021 (up from €1.16 billion in H1 2020), of which €963.7 million were achieved in Italy and €423.6 million in Spain.

Advertising revenues in Italy increased 31.7 per cent to €979.9 million, while the Spanish market contributed with €406.1 million (up from €325.1 million).

Significantly, Mediaset performed better than the overall advertising market, which grew by 26.7 per cent. The broadcaster achieved a net profit of €226.7 million, compared with a net loss of-€18.9 million a year earlier.

Despite the ongoing health emergency in both Italy and Spain, the results represent an improvement not only on H1 2020 but also on H1 2019. The Group also managed to reduce net financial debt from €1.06 billion to €731.7 million.

In Italy, Mediaset recorded a 34.3 per cent share in the 24 hours and a 34 per cent share in prime time in the commercial target, while the Mediaset España channels remain leaders with a 30.8 per cent share in the commercial target in the 24 hours.

The Group expects that the positive trend in overall advertising sales will be confirmed in Q3, with cumulative figures for 9 months higher than those of both 2020 and 2019.

During the autumn season, Mediaset plans to boost both its TV and streaming offer with more sports content (Champions League) and the Mediaset Infinity platform.

However, Mediaset suffered from buffering problems (due to CDN overload) for the first Champions League matches aired by its Infinity+ streaming platform on 15 September, recalling similar problems faced by DAZN for its Serie A coverage.

Without losing any time, the broadcaster decided to remedy the situation by promising to extend the subscription period for all subscribers by 15 days.

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