European television giant RTL Group has been locked in the profitability of its streaming sector, with startups falling last year with a surge in subscriber numbers and online revenue.
With year-end results issued on Thursday, RTL jumped to over 6.8 million subscribers of German and Hungarian streaming service RTL+ and France’s new M6+ platform to 21%. Streaming revenues rose an impressive 42% to 403 million euros ($437 million), due to rising prices for Germany’s RTL+ services. RTL’s German services account for the Lion’s share of the group’s subscriber business, with approximately 6.06 million payment subscribers. Streaming startup losses in the division fell by around 22% to 137 million euros ($149 million).
RTL CEO Thomas Rabe praised the results as the “turning point” of the company’s digital future. “Our streaming service continued to grow its streaming service in 2024, significantly reducing startup losses. We are steadily progressing to reach profitability by 2026,” Rabe said in a statement.
The aggressive push to streaming of RTL was further strengthened by a new partnership with Deutsche Telekom, expanding Telekom’s integration into MagentATV until 2030. Rabe also pointed to promising early results in France. In France, the company rebranded the streaming service M6+ (from 6play) and launched it in May last year. The new platform’s monthly users increased by 30%, while streaming time increased by 35% compared to its predecessor.
RTL forecasts 9 million streaming subscribers and 750 million euros ($816 million) revenue by 2026.
RTL’s free television business, yet the company’s core, featured less rosy photos. The total audience share of RTL Germany’s German network in the major 14-59 demographic fell to 26.3% from 27.4% in the previous year. Television advertising revenues were 2.35 billion euros ($2.56 billion). Rabe put an aggressive spin on the numbers, noting that the RTL Deutschland audience shares the total channel reach of Prosiebensat.1.
Overall, RTL’s group revenues remained stable at 6.25 billion euros ($68.1 billion), a slight decline in total group profits at 555 million euros ($604 million) compared to 598 million euros the previous year.
RTL’s content production division Fremantle saw an 8% “organic” decline in revenue. This was attributed to a 2023 US actor and director strike and budget cuts from broadcasters for streaming services and advertising funding. The drop was particularly offset by Fremantle’s acquisition of photos from television production groups Asacha Media and Beach House. A private equity-backed group, Asacha owns several production outfits in France, Italy and the UK, including his death at Paradise producer Red Planet Pictures. Italian scripted group Picomedia (Beyond the Sea, La Storia) and Stand By Me (diary). French SRAB films (Saint Omer, Happening) and Mintie Studios (Cimetiere Indien). The Singapore-based Beach House has a non-script focus and produces shows such as local versions of global franchises such as Netflix’s Mind Your Manners, Mr. Midnight and MasterChef Singapore.
Creatively, Fremantle enjoyed his 2024 banner. A poor thing from Yorgos Lantimos, produced by photographs of elements owned by Fremantle, picking up four Oscars.
However, with revenues of 2.25 billion euros ($2.45 billion), Fremantle still comes a long way from its target of 3 billion euros ($3.26 billion) annual revenue. RTL casually moved its target goal post on Thursday, saying it hopes to reach a “midterm” of 3 billion euros by 2026, as originally forecasted.
