Media company RTL Group is struggling with advertisers spending less money on advertising. Companies are cutting back on their marketing spending due to poor economic prospects. Due to the decline in advertising, RTL’s sales in the first nine months of 2023 were 7 percent lower than last year at 4.66 billion euros.
The international parent company of RTL 4 and RTL 5, among others, is looking more gloomy about the rest of the year. RTL assumes annual turnover of €6.9 billion, €100 million less than expected. The expected annual profit is 50 million euros lower and amounts to 900 million euros.
In addition to the volatile advertising market, RTL also suffered from weak program sales by its production company, Fremantle. This has generated €1.53 billion in the past nine months, 7 percent less than in the same period last year. At the same time, the company is increasingly focusing on the streaming services market.
The influx of 16 percent of new subscribers to their Videoland platform was a bright spot. Combined with the increase in new subscribers to RTL+, RTL has already generated €263 million in broadcast revenue this year, 21 percent more than the previous year.