RTL sees revenue rise thanks to German, French ad recovery


Pan-regional European broadcaster RTL Group saw its first-quarter revenues rise as a result of strong advertising in Germany and France. This comes despite continued decline in southern and eastern Europe. 


The company, which operates 46 channels in nine European countries, reported a 6.3% rise in revenue in the first quarter of 2012 from €1.24 billion to €1.32 billion. It said that its results were driven by higher revenue at RTL Deutschland, which launched RTL Nitro in April, French commercial broadcaster M6 and FremantleMedia, which recently saw CEO Tony Cohen announce his departure, to be replaced by FremantleMedia North America CEO Cécile Frot-Coutaz.

“The advertising markets in the first quarter of 2012 reflected the state of the national economies as they navigate through the Euro crisis. While the German TV advertising market grew significantly in the first quarter, the French market was estimated to be slightly up year-on-year. In the Netherlands and Belgium the markets were down, and in southern and eastern Europe the markets continued to decline strongly,” RTL noted in a statement.