Atresmedia cashes in on recovering ad market

DetailsJuan Fernandez Gonzalez | 27 February 2015




The largest audiovisual groups are clearly benefitting from the upturn in advertising in Spain, with Atresmedia announcing a 6.4% growth in income, surpassing €880 million net revenues during 2014.


And profits are also on the up, growing by 1.4% compared to 2013 to reach €46.7 million, as was EBITDA, up by 59.3% to almost hit €128 million.

Atresmedia's business is led by television as this division earned €785.3 million in income, up 7.8% on 2013.

In spite of seeing the closure of three channels - Nitro, Xplora and laSexta 3 - following a ruling by Spain's Supreme Tribunal in May, Atresmedia continues to top audience figures together with Mediaset, and accumulated an average 27.7% share last year, leading prime time with an average 31.6%.

But Atresmedia's growth is mainly due to the strengthening of its second-line free-to-air (FTA) channel, laSexta, which has shown an average 7.2% share (the best since launch) and consolidated the company's fourth position behind Telecinco, Antena 3 and public broadcaster TVE.

The audiovisual group's figures seem to confirm the gradual recovery of the advertising market, which saw 2014 as the first positive year since 2008.