Fremantle’s revenues fell by 5.6% in the first quarter of this year as owner RTL saw turnover tumble by nearly 10%.
The Planet Sex, Normal People and American Gods outfit’s turnover slipped from €461M ($509.80) in Q1 2022 to €435M for the first three months of this year.
Delivering its Q1 results this morning, RTL, which is owned by Bertelsmann, put this down to “timing effects of production deliveries.” Nonetheless, RTL CEO Thomas Rabe said the global producer-distributor had “continued its creative success story across drama and film, entertainment and documentaries, with numerous awards” during the quarter, pointing to partnerships with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger and The Case Against Adnan Syed‘s Amy Berg, along with the purchase of a majority stake in Belgium’s A Team Productions.
The results will be a blow to Fremantle, which is targeting €3B turnover by 2025. Fremantle’s full-year 2022 results showed much improvement, rising 21% to €2.3B, which were revealed in March. This came after a two-year period during which it spent around €250M on acquisitions.
Today’s results reiterated the €3B target and said “to reach this goal and keep up with the increasing demand for content, RTL Group will invest significantly in Fremantle – both organically and via acquisitions – in all territories across drama and film, entertainment and factual shows and documentaries.”
RTL saw group revenue slide 9% to €1.4B for the quarter, citing “challenging TV advertising markets in particular in Germany,” along with scope effects. Group revenue was down 7.7% organically. The quarter included plans to centralize RTL’s publishing arm, which will see more than 500 roles cut and €75M of annual savings. “The geopolitical and macroeconomic environment remains volatile and the impact on RTL Group’s businesses continues to be hard to predict,” today’s report added.
In more positive news, streaming revenue from SVoDs RTL+ and Videoland was up 15.6% to €74 million (Q1/2022: €64 million), with RTL flagging the “rapidly growing number of RTL+ subscribers in Germany.”
