European broadcast giant RTL has reported a 2 per cent decline in Q2 sales due to lower revenues at production unit FremantleMedia and competition for advertising revenue from the UEFA European football championship.

The Bertelsmann-owned company said it expected revenues to recover in the second half, and raised its full-year profit forecast and promised an interim dividend.

RTL said it now expected growth of 1 to 2.5 per cent in 2016 earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) instead of broadly stable EBITA, and confirmed it expected revenue growth of 2.5 to 5 per cent.

EBITA grew 3 per cent in the quarter to €351 million, driven by French broadcaster M6 and RTL Germany.

“You can’t look at the production business on a quarterly basis simply because of the nature of the business,” co-Chief Executive Guillaume de Posch said in an interview with Reuters, pointing out the uneven occurrence of large contracts.

He added the financial impact of a deal announced with Amazon to show American Gods on Amazon Prime – part of a burgeoning business with OTT players – would first be felt in 2017.

Other posts by :

1. Rakuten makes historic satellite video call
2. Rocket Lab confirms D2C ambitions
3. Turkey establishes satellite production ecosystem
4. Italy joins Germany in IRIS2 alternate thoughts
5. Kazakhstan to create museum at Yuri Gagarin launch site
6. AST SpaceMobile gets $42 or $1500 price target
7. Analyst: GEO bloodbath taking place
8. SES AGM results: Appaloosa still objecting
9. SpaceX’s Shotwell worth $1.2bn

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Business, Results