TF1's activity benefits from the 2T World Cup

Paris – TF1 saw its activity benefit in the second quarter of the broadcast of the World Cup football, he has managed to make better money than four years ago.
  

The television group published Wednesday a turnover up 8% to 584.3 million euros during the period, with advertising revenues of channels in clear up 1.6% benefiting of the broadcast of the World Cup.

Its net profit decreased by 12% in the second quarter to 41 million euros while the previous year was boosted by the sale of a stake in AB Group.

Operating income amounted to 62.2 million euros, down 12% over the quarter with program costs weighed 46 million euros by the World Cup.

If the dissemination of this sporting event is not strictly profitable for the group, the financial impact is " largely offset by the control of program costs and the growth of production activities ", says TF1 in a statement.

" Thanks to the career of the team of France and our ability to optimize the digital we did a better performance than in 2014 ," said the financial director Philippe Denery to journalists.

The group has managed to pull more revenue from digital ads as a growing share of its audience watches the matches online and it has benefited for this competition from 5 sponsors, against 4 four years ago.

While 18 World Cup matches were broadcast in the second quarter, the beneficial effect on audiences will continue to be felt in the third quarter with the last 10 games including the final.

Over the period April-June, the audience of all channels of TF1 has stood at 29.2%, stable over one year. It is progressing on the commercial target (women under 50) for its TF1 flagship.

Over the half-year, the group's revenue rose 3.9% to 1.083 billion euros while its net profit fell 12% to 65.8 million euros.

The group has also begun to benefit from the new revenues paid by operators for the broadcasting of its channels in the clear, a windfall that should gradually increase in power, he said.

The group confirmed its financial objectives for 2018 at the end of the first half, including an increase in the operating margin rate for the group (excluding major sporting events), which was 10.4% in 2017, and a target for a double-digit current operating margin rate in 2019.

The group also targets an average annual program cost of € 960 million (excluding major sporting events) for the five unencrypted channels over the period 2018- 2020 and a growth in the non-advertising activities of the five free-to-air channels, which should account for at least one third of consolidated sales in 2019.