ProSiebenSat.1 Q2 revenues down 17%
August 3, 2023
ProSiebenSat.1 Group reports that is has the second quarter of 2023 “in line with expectations“.
Against the current challenging macroeconomic environment in the German-speaking region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Group revenues in Q2 were 17 per cent below the previous year at €868 million. The TV advertising business in particular continued to be affected by ongoing consumer restraint in the second quarter, albeit to a somewhat lesser extent than in the first quarter. Also consolidation effects had a negative impact on the Group’s revenue performance. Organically, i.e., adjusted for portfolio and currency effects, revenues declined accordingly by 10 per cent. These developments also characterised the half-year period: The Group recorded revenues of €1.68 billion on a half-year basis, a decline of 15 per cent or organically of 9 per cent compared to the previous-year period.
Bert Habets, Group CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, commented: “As expected, the second quarter continued to be characterised by a weak TV advertising market. This once again underlines how crucial it is that we focus on our digital business at ProSiebenSat.1. We are clearly aligning our organisation and processes to our digital transformation. We are already seeing the first positive results here with our streaming platform Joyn: The launch in Austria was successful, advertising revenues on the platform are growing and Video Viewtime increased by 6 per cent to 6.5 billion minutes watched in the second quarter. We are consistently pursuing this path, combined with our strong focus on costs and efficiency. With the organisational and strategic realignment now initiated, we are creating the basis for consistently implementing our growth strategy.”
Martin Mildner, Group CFO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, added: “As expected and also announced, the weak economy and its consequences for consumer sentiment and advertising spending strongly impacted our results in the second quarter as well as the entire first half of the year. In contrast, we however recorded good growth with our digital offerings, such as Joyn and our podcast business, as well as with our commerce platforms like Verivox and flaconi. In the second half of the year, we expect our advertising business to recover in the course of a brighter economic development compared to the previous year, and thus to see significant catch-up effects in terms of revenues and earnings. In the third quarter, we currently expect the Group’s adjusted EBITDA to develop stable year-on-year. At the same time, we focus on consistently implementing our cost programme, in order to improve ProSiebenSat.1’s profitability in the long-term.”
ProSiebenSat.1 confirms the Group’s forecast for the financial year 2023 on the assumption that the economy in the German-speaking regionwill recover in the second half of 2023 in line with the current expectations of economic research institutes. On this basis, ProSiebenSat.1 Group continues to expect for full-year 2023 Group revenues of around €4.10 billion.