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Investing.com -- RTL Group (ETR:RRTL) on Tuesday lowered its full-year outlook after advertising markets in Germany and France weakened further in the second half of the year, cutting its 2025 Adjusted EBITA forecast to €650 million from about €780 million and reducing its revenue guidance to between €6 billion and €6.1 billion, down from roughly €6.45 billion.
The company said the revision followed a downturn in TV advertising that did not show the expected improvement.
“The German and French TV advertising markets have not gained momentum in the second half of the year as expected,” chief executive Thomas Rabe said in a statement.
For the first nine months of 2025, the Luxembourg-based broadcaster and streaming group reported revenue of €4.12 billion, down 2.2% from €4.21 billion a year earlier.
Group revenue fell 3.5% on an organic basis. TV advertising revenue decreased 7.4% to €1.49 billion, while total advertising revenue slipped 2.6% to €2.06 billion.
The company said digital advertising revenue rose 31.7% to €345 million, compensating 70% of the decline in TV advertising.
Third-quarter revenue remained stable at €1.34 billion compared with €1.34 billion in the same period of 2024, supported by digital advertising growth of 40.2%.
Fremantle, the group’s content division, posted a 5.1% revenue decline to €1.35 billion, mainly due to lower U.S. revenue and phasing effects following a stronger prior-year period.
Fremantle’s third-quarter revenue fell 4.5% to €447 million. Streaming continued to expand, with revenue up 26.6% to €351 million, driven by subscriber growth, higher subscription prices in Germany and rising advertising revenue on RTL+ and M6+.
Third-quarter streaming revenue increased 24.9% to €116 million. The number of paying subscribers reached 7.591 million by September, up 17.4% from 6.466 million a year earlier.
RTL Group ended September with net debt of €71 million, an improvement from €492 million at the end of 2024.
The company received €1.1 billion from the sale of RTL Nederland on July 1 and paid a €2.50-per-share dividend in May, totaling €387 million.
The group continued its share buyback efforts, acquiring 3,166,052 shares at €37.85 per share in September, and launched an additional buyback program on November 18 of up to 833,948 shares at a maximum price of €35.
The broadcaster said it is progressing with its planned acquisition of Sky Deutschland, approved by Germany’s media regulator KEK in September.
The European Commission review is expected in the first half of 2026. The purchase includes €150 million in cash and a variable consideration linked to RTL Group’s share price, capped at €377 million.
The statement detailed continued declines in advertising markets, with Germany down 9% to 10% and France down 11% for the January-to-September period.
RTL Deutschland posted a 25.8% audience share in its main target group, down from 26.7%. Groupe M6 increased its audience share in France to 20.9% from 19.5%.
Rabe said the group remains focused on strengthening core operations, expanding growth areas and advancing partnerships. “Short-term challenges do not change our medium-term Adjusted EBITA target of €1 billion,” he said.