RTL has announced that its total earnings before ebita rose 7.7% year on year to €515 million (£256.3 million).
The group’s revenue was up 1.3% to €2.89 billion (£1.44 billion). These figures included an €123 million (£61 million) impairment on the carrying value of Five due to “strong competition and the increasing fragmentation of the UK market had created difficulties for all UK broadcasters”.
However, RTL went on to say that the UK television advertising market will grow by up to 2% this year.
Gerhard Zeiler, chief executive officer of RTL Group, said: “I am delighted that we managed to top the strong first-half performance seen in 2006. The operating result for the first six months exceeded EUR 500 million for the first time, largely fuelled by our three major profit centres – the family of channels in Germany, the M6 Group in France, and FremantleMedia.
“Despite the sale of TPS, revenues reached the record level achieved in the first half of 2006, which was also boosted by high advertising revenue in the lead-up to the Football World Cup.
“At the same time, the results highlight how important our strategic concept of strong families of channels is. The RTL family grew its audience market shares considerably in the very competitive German market. In France, M6 Group’s digital channels showed very dynamic growth, led by W9. And the deal with John de Mol will help us to further enhance the position of RTL’s Dutch family of channels.
“We remain cautious but optimistic on the outlook for advertising in the second half of the year where visibility remains limited.”
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