Pan-European broadcaster, RTL Group, has reduced its losses from €2.5 billion in 2001, to just €56 million last year, according to the company’s year-end financial results released today.
The results were ahead of expectations from analysts at Merrill Lynch, due to a significant outperformance in television and radio. The broker says that losses at the UK’s Five station were lower than predicted at just €2 million (analysts forecast a €10 million loss). A higher than forecast earnings contribution from Germany also boosted the TV division’s figures.
In terms of advertising, the UK television market was weak in Q1 2003 and RTL is expecting a 2-3% growth for the full year. The German TV sector remains weak, with Merrill forecasting a 3-4% drop in ad revenues for FY 2003.
Overall revenues at the group were up 7.6% to €4.4 billion, whilst earnings rose by 32.1% to €477 million.
RTL says that advertising conditions remain tough, with low visibility, and so advertisers are looking to prime time leadership to deliver mass audiences.
“RTL Group continues to develop non-advertising related revenue streams and can already say, after the first two months of 2003, that it is having some worthwhile success. However, the economic and political environment adds to the uncertainty,” says the statement.
Ulster TV
Ulster Television has defied challenging advertising conditions to record an 3.7% rise in pre-tax profits for 2002, according to the company’s figures published today.
Northern Ireland’s television broadcaster continues to outperform the likes of Carlton and Granada and ad revenues rose by 4.7% to £37.8 million against a decrease of 1% across the whole network. UTV’s peak time audience share of 34.5% also compared favourably with the ITV average of 31.5%.
Group chief executive John McCann said: “Despite another difficult year for the media industry, the UTV group continued to make excellent progress and increased its operating profits significantly in a challenging economic environment.”
Overall turnover increased by 10% from £43 million in 2001 to £47.3 million last year while pre-tax profits before goodwill were up from £13.4 million to £13.9 million. Radio revenues alone climbed by 58% to £6.3 million following the acquisition of three stations in the Republic of Ireland.
Nonetheless, television remains the core business at UTV and the company is confident of continuing success in this area. “There are indications, albeit fragile that the total television market will enjoy some growth in 2003,” said McCann. “We expect to record a 2% increase in advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2003, compared to a 5% decline for ITV. In these uncertain market conditions, our objective will be to continue to improve our market share.”
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