Reach rises but RTL revenues fall in the first quarter of 2020
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 30 April 2020

As it battles with the effects of the coronavirus that has already seen the cancellations of advertising bookings as well as postponements of productions, RTL has revealed a first quarter of 2020 with group revenues revenue down 3.4% annually to €1.466 billion.

RTL attributed the fall in revenue mainly to lower TV advertising revenue resulting from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Breaking out revenues from its divisions over the first three months of 2020, RTL generated €1.035 billion at its Broadcast line, down 4.8% on an annual basis; €378 million for Content revenue, namely Fremantle, down 1.3% year-on-year.

The company generated €103 million in its Digital business which encompasses the BBTV, Divimove and SpotX subsidiaries and which actually grew by 3% compared with Q1 2019 while streaming revenue from the TV Now in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands services was up 19.4% year-on-year to €37 million. As a result, RTL Group’s total digital revenue was up 5.9% to €233 million.

During the coronavirus pandemic, RTL Group has been able to increase its net reach, viewing times and digital usage across its channels, platforms and countries. Indeed the streaming revenue increase was said to be due to solid growth in streaming subscriptions. At the end of March 2020, RTL Group registered 1.53 million paying subscribers for TV Now and Videoland, up 34%. Both services saw a higher growth rate for new subscribers since the introduction of lockdown measures in mid-March 2020. In France, Groupe M6’s streaming service 6play recorded an additional one million registered users and a 45% increase of videos viewed between 16 March and 16 April 2020.

Commenting on the first quarter results, RTL Group chief executive officer Thomas Rabe said that despite the economic uncertainty from Covid-19, the company’s three-priority strategy – core, growth, alliances & partnerships – remained unchanged and the company was making ‘good’ progress in implementing counter measures to reduce costs and preserve liquidity.

He remarked: “We maintain our mid-term targets for the streaming services TV Now in Germany and Videoland in the Netherlands to grow their total number of paying subscribers to between 5 and 7 million, to grow streaming revenue to at least €500 million and to break even by 2025. The growth in paying subscribers and streaming revenue in the first quarter of 2020 is in line with the boost plans we presented in March.”