First half earnings at pan-European broadcasting group, RTL, were down by 23.0% due to the very weak television advertising market in Europe, the group announced this morning. Group revenue rose by 5.1% to E2.1 billion, but underlying revenue fell by 2.0%.
RTL sees continued difficulties in the advertising market conditions, with the German market down by 7.2% in gross adspend in the first half. The poor trading hits RTL’s profits very hard as around 70% are derived from advertising revenue. To combat the conditions, RTL has put in place cost reduction measures, which chief executive Didier Bellens believes will be ‘extremely beneficial’ when an improvement in the markets occurs.
However, Bellens says that “the state of the market has not changed since we issued our trading update in July. Visibility is still extremely low and while there are some small positive signs in the UK and the Netherlands, the weak German market and a flat French market do not encourage us to call any sort of recovery at this stage.”
RTL notes that H1 2002 is compared to a relatively strong first half of 2001. Whilst the second half of 2001 saw a dramatic downturn, it is not foreseeing a similar picture for 2002.
Channel 5 RTL holds a 65% stake in the UK’s Channel 5. The group says that C5’s advertising share is up to 7.3%, from the 6.1% as at 30 June 2001. Audience share has risen from 5.6% in H1 2001, to 6.4% this time.
RTL to de-list from LSE The group also announced today that it is to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange (LSE) following a period of low trading volumes in London. RTL will continue to be listed on the Luxembourg and Brussels stock exchange.
