Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the MFE-MEDIAFOREUROPE 2023 Full-Year Results Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a Q&A session. To ask a question during the session, you'll need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker, Sara Bersan. Please go ahead.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the full-year 2023 results presentation. Today, the presentation will be hosted by Marco Giordani, Group CFO, and Matteo Cardani, Managing Director of Publitalia. Now I'll hand over immediately to Matteo for the audience and advertising outlook. Matteo, please go ahead.
Thank you, Sara. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for attending our results presentation. We will go over the fiscal year 2023 numbers with a short preview of ongoing indicators for current trading. Let's start with a review of the overall economic situation. Thanks to the reduction in inflation, we stood at +5.7% at year-end 2023, but that in the last quarter of the year and in the first few months of 2024 is falling down below 1%. We can report a positive evolution in the confidence index for both businesses and consumers, which grew month by month in Q4 2023, as you can see in chart number three, and that explains the good performance in Q4 last year.
This situation is reflected in the average stability of service and good consumption, as you can see in chart number four, with services growing by 4.2% and goods down by only 1.8%. With regard to gross domestic product, as you know, both conjunctural and trend variation for Italy were positive in Q4 2023, with the full year having a better trend than the Euro area for both Italy and Spain. And even gross domestic product forecasts are also positive for 2024 for both countries, Italy +0.7% and Spain +1.7%, thus Euro area at an average of + 0.8%. So moving on from the macroeconomic indicators to the advertising market, both Italy and Spain have registered a positive evolution of revenues in 2023.
Regarding the Italian advertising market, if you take a look at chart number five, you can see the total market registered a growth of +2.4% year-on-year, benefiting from the growth of media such as radio and out-of-home and television showing a good resilience, mainly if we compare to TV trends in other main European countries. On the right-hand side, importantly, the graph shows the progression of MFE advertising revenues on a yearly basis between 2019, indexed at 100, and 2023, against the total market excluding MFE. In 2023, MFE reaches its highest level since 2019, while the rest of the market is still 10 index points away, maintaining the same distance as the end of 2022.
If we move to chart number six, you can appreciate the sector's contribution to the growth of the market, and you can see that the main highlight is the automotive sector by itself. It accounts for 1.7 points of contribution to growth. In the following chart number seven , you see our performance in 2023, so +2.1% year-on-year, so better than the company's expectations, and recording the best Q4 results of the last five years. Our company achieved these results thanks to two main drivers. So let's say demand and supply. Demand means balanced dynamics among economic sectors, and supply means the strength of our offer on first screens and digital screens. So if we take a look at sector dynamics over the last five years before pandemic and last year, we divided the economic sectors into three groups.
There are sectors that benefited from the pandemic and continued to grow afterwards, such as retail, home care, and household equipment. Sectors that have remained stable in the five-year period, such as pharma, personal care, and toiletries. Then you can appreciate those sectors that are recovering from the declines suffered during the pandemic but still have room for growth to return to the 2019 level: grocery, food, telcos, and most of all, automotive, which grew by 25% in 2023, reflecting the growth in vehicle registration around +20% in the last year. But the sector is still away from 2019 level of registrations and advertising. So that's why I say we are quite confident that there is still room for growth, also considering the fact that there will be, in the forthcoming months, some incentives for car purchases. I skip to chart number 10 now, commenting our offer.
In the second part of 2023, there has been a marked change in our offer with new TV hosts and presenters and a reconfirmation of the successful performance both in daytime and prime time. So thanks to our offer of a generalist and thematic channel, each of them with a very distinctive positioning, the company last year outperformed its main competitor in various targets, including individuals and commercial targets, both in the 24-hour and in prime time, also benefiting from the growth of digital screens, so connected TV, mobile, and desktop. So you can appreciate in this chart that on commercial target, we are above our competitor by 10 points. Then if we move to chart number 11, you can appreciate the strength of digital screens, growth by a total audience, growth of +1.1% versus 2019.
So, adding 2.7% to the traditional audience trend performance, we are. I do really think that this is a key chart because, differently from the main trend in other countries, the combination of resilience in a linear audience and growth in total audience deliver a positive sum gain, a positive sum gain that you can also appreciate in slide number 12, where the combination of connected TV and second screens keeps adding viewers with a younger profile complementary to the linear TV audience, most of all with the additional benefit of a higher CPM compared to linear TV. And chart number 13 restates the fact that we have a positive, let's say, trading up in the combination of the free screens with regard to monetization. So you can see the pricing upside opportunity on addressable advertising that is characterized by a higher revenue per hour compared to the linear offer.
Of course, this positive trend is strongly supported by our business digital key figures, sorry, that you can appreciate in chart number 14, where you see that you can see the number of our total streaming hours on a yearly basis. So we reach almost 650 million hours of streaming hours on a year basis with an increase of +35%. And most of all, you could appreciate the fact that the consumption by logged-in users represents 84% of the total streaming hours, and that's really appreciated by the market because they are profiled users. And even the number of monthly viewers' active devices is growing to reach 6.6 million users on an average monthly basis in the last year. So all the fundamentals of our business, as you can appreciate, are in very good health. So let's now move to Spain.
So the advertising performance in Spain last year, the linear TV advertising market in Spain, was down ±2.4%. But we could appreciate the fact that, as in Italy, however, the total advertising market is performing better in Spain than in other European countries. Spain last year was around +3.7%. Regarding our performance that you see in chart number 15, we were down -2.2%, so better than the linear TV trend that was -2.4%. And this good performance, that means can be explained by the sector's trend. We replicated the same sector analysis we carried out for Italy. So you see that there are a lot of similarities among the two countries with an important part of growing sectors such as retail, household equipment, and home care, the same three stable sectors: personal care, pharma, and travel.
You have more or less the same recovering sectors, so telcos, groceries, food, finance, and most of all, as in Italy, automotive. Last but not least, with regard to Spain in chart number 17, you see our solid leadership on commercial target. We are leader on commercial target with a 28% share. So this was quickly the review of the fiscal year 2023 performance, and I remarked the fact that the fundamentals of our business are in very good health. This situation extends to Q1 this year. In the first part of the current financial year, the group advertising sales performance, supported by very good broadcasting results, showed a significant growth of +6% compared to the same period last year. In Italy, the growth in advertising revenues was +5% compared to the same period 2023.
So we are consolidating the extremely positive trend that characterized the second part of 2023. There are also signs of improvement in Spain, with sales in the quarter growing strongly, +8% compared to the same period in 2023. So in both geographical areas, positive trends are also being recorded for the current month of April. So just the final comments on our outlook on the first part of the year. So as we stated in our press release, the first few months of 2024 had a very good start for the advertising market. And I want to remark the fact that for the first time in four years, Q1 maintained the positive inertia of Q4 and so closed with a single-digit growth, with a trend better than fiscal year 2023, a very good growth around +5%.
However, and this is very important to share with you, we do think that it's possible that the weight of the four quarters will be distributed differently. The weight of Q4 advertising investment, which in recent years has been very high, may be lower instead of the weight of Q1 that was very important. So we could be in front of a rebalance between Q4 and Q1 in advertising expenditure allocation. And furthermore, we should also take into account that Q2 and Q3, where there will be the European Football Championships and the Olympic Games, which will be broadcasted by RAI. And from autumn 2024, we will no longer own the rights for the Champions League. And so all these factors will lead to the coming quarters' closing expectation with a lower trend than the first quarter.
Spain, with regard to Spain, Mediaset España had a very good performance in the first two months of the year with double-digit growth, recovering the decrease in 2023, and reaching above the level of 2022. March has been affected by Easter week, that is quite important in Spain. But as I said, the overall Q1, so a growth of +8%. We are in the middle of the month of April. And again, we are facing a positive trend recorded also for the current month. So I thank you for your attention, and I pass to Marco for the financials. Thank you.
Thank you, Matteo, and good morning, everybody, also on my side. I will take you through the full year 2023 results presentation, starting with an overview of the group result. At page 19, you can see the main highlights.
The group achieved a result above our expectation, the one we had at the beginning of 2023. During the year, we went through the integration process with Spain. That has contributed, certainly, to efficiency thanks to the sharing of best practice, new projects, and also leveraging on innovation. With a level of total revenue that is, as you can see, very close to last year, so to the previous year, we have improved profitability, and we have achieved an EBIT that was 23% higher than 2022, so pretty remarkable performance. As I said, the total revenue reached EUR 2,810 million due to a better-than-expected top-line result in Italy that offsets the forecasted decline in Spain. Two main drivers explain the slight decline in Spain. One was the unfavorable other revenue lines.
We are going to explain that in the coming page, and an expected lower advertising collection, pretty aligned with the advertising market we had in 2023, as Matteo was explaining before. As far as group net profit, excluding the accounting effect of the consolidation of ProSiebenSat.1, the result was positive for EUR 270 million, higher by 32.8% sorry, EUR 32.8 million versus 2022, almost 18% higher than the previous year. This level of net profit excludes three additional elements. Certainly, the almost cancellation of the dividend coming from ProSiebenSat.1. In 2022, we cashed in EUR 42 million. In 2023, just EUR 3 million. And a negative effect of the equity consolidation of our stake in ProSiebenSat.1 for about EUR 11.3 million.
That new consolidation started from the 1st of July 2023, and this negative contribution is coming from the result of the one-off impairment of programming asset of about EUR 250 million and a provision for onerous contract for almost EUR 90 million that ProSiebenSat.1 recorded in the financial year 2023 that clearly impacted the reported group key figure. The solid operating performance has allowed the company to largely offset the downside or the net result level coming from the above-mentioned discontinuities. As far as the group financial position and excluding the liability of IFRS 16, as you can see, we were around EUR 738 million debt. That was in line with the previous year. Moving to the geographical area and trying to assess the performance of the two countries, Matteo has already explained the advertising. So I'm not going to comment again.
As far as Italy is concerned, the other revenue line was EUR 280 million in 2023, 2.4% better than the previous year. At the EBIT level in Italy, we register an outstanding result showing a cost base fully under control. The adjusted EBIT figure was EUR 183 million in Italy, as I said, almost two times higher than the previous year, so the double than 2022. Total adjusted cost was EUR 1,795 million. We were managing the cost base with a great efficient approach, and the result in 2023 is a sharp decline of total cost of around 2.9% year-over-year. In absolute number, we are talking about EUR 54 million cost reduction, again, taking into consideration the difficult economic backdrop characterized by a sharp rise in inflation.
Moving to Spain, again, I'm not going to comment on the advertising line, but the other revenue line on the other end resulted in EUR 86.1 million. We accounted for EUR 17 million of other revenues less than last year. Again, that was mainly due to the fact that in the third quarter 2022, Mediaset España had a premiere release of Tadeo Jones, number three, one of the most successful saga in Spain. And clearly, in 2023, that was not, again, on the screen. In 2024, we are expecting to come back to a similar level than the previous year. In terms of cost in Spain, they were EUR 671 million, declining again compared to the previous year and accounting for an adjusted EBIT of EUR 161.5 million. Again, then moving to page 21, we can go a little bit deeper in the guidance for 2024.
The first element I would like to comment is that MFE will start from the 1st of January 2024 to consolidate 100% of Mediamond. Mediamond was a joint venture between Mediaset and Mondadori dedicated to the digital advertising collection. Previously, the joint venture was 50/50, as I said, and was accounted at equity level. And as we bought 100% of the company at the end of last year, from the 1st of January 2024, we are going to consolidate line by line 100% of this company. The accounting effect of it will be pretty important in terms of effects, so I'll try to guide you through it. Following the acquisition of 100%, we are going to consolidate almost EUR 70 million of incremental revenue and almost EUR 70 million of incremental cost, clearly with a small positive contribution at the B line.
To give you a broad sense of the impact of the consolidation, you have to account for EUR 70 million more revenue and EUR 70 million more cost. Part of the revenue, the EUR 70 million revenue, are clearly related to the digital collection of Mediaset sites. And so in terms of line, 80% of the incremental revenue will go in the other revenue lines and 20% on the advertising collection line. Thanks to that, for the other revenue for 2024, we can confirm the guidance as anticipated in the latest conference call to remain flattish compared to 2023, increasing, as we said, EUR 50 million coming from the consolidation of Mediamond. So in total, the guidance for the other revenue line is going to be EUR 430 million.
As far as the rest, clearly, you have to remind that you will have other revenue line movements that are the ones that clearly related to sale of content, cinema production, subscription of entity services, and other revenue that are not related to advertising collection. As we said, we generated EUR 345 million of Adjusted EBIT in 2023. As I said before, 23% higher than 2022, so a pretty remarkable performance. As already said, cost management in 2023 was very strong, with total cost declining by EUR 56 million compared to the previous year, - 2.2%. This great performance, as we said in the latest conference call, was also due to the integration process with Spain that we have already described.
In 2024, we are guiding the total cost line in the range of EUR 2.56 billion, with ±30 clearly linked to the trend of advertising collection. Some variable costs clearly are related to that. In specific, EUR 1.87 billion in Italy, with a range of ±20, and EUR 690 million in Spain, -10. Businesses also in 2024, we will be able to achieve an incredible result despite inflation that is still pretty high and the relative increase of cost of labor. We will be able to maintain the total amount of total cost flattish compared to 2023. Clearly, again, I'm repeating, excluding the consolidation of Mediamond, that will be clearly non-comparable with 2023. The progress achieved in the consolidation process is going on. Some other efficiency will come through the P&L also in 2024.
Innovation and new platform will be put in place during the year, increasing the level of flexibility in managing the cost base. To recap, there will be some consolidating effect coming from Mediamond. Again, from the effectiveness of our sales force, this is pretty important because we give to Publitalia Group an additional, let's say, strength in the advertising market. But as we said, we will have some non-comparable numbers in 2024 compared to 2023 that we have to remind. So EUR 70 million additional revenue and almost EUR 70 million of additional cost with a small positive contribution to the EBIT line. In any case, the cost base would be in Italy, EUR 1.87 billion, again, with a range of ±20. And again, I'm confirming that EUR 690 million in Spain with a range of ±10 for Spain.
Moving down to the P&L, so talking about below the EBIT line, the financial charges in 2023 were negative for EUR 26.5 million, in line with our expectation. That's clearly, it's also taking into account the increase of the interest rates on the market because, as we said, the level of the financial position didn't move a lot compared to 2022. Clearly, as you can see, we have great differences in value compared to 2022 because in this line, in 2022, we recorded more than EUR 40 million euros dividends, specifically EUR 42.3 million coming from ProSiebenSat.1. And clearly, in 2023, the dividend was only EUR 3.1 million, so pretty large differences. Regarding Associate, this line was positive for EUR 3.9 million in 2023. This is the line where the EUR 11.3 million negative accounting effect coming from ProSiebenSat.1 is recorded. That, frankly, was not expected.
But I mean, that's something that we are accounting automatically coming from what ProSiebenSat.1 is reporting. Minority line for EUR 70.5 million ,sorry, EUR 7.5 million euros—that's a line that clearly will change during 2024 because in 2023, we had still the first quarter with Mediaset España not consolidated 100%. While clearly, in the first quarter of 2024, that will be 100% consolidated. Again, I am repeating that the group net profit, excluding ProSiebenSat.1 effect, was in 2023, EUR 217.5 million. In terms of guidance, we can guide the financial charges in around EUR 25 million also in 2024. And in the Associate line, we confirm the guidance of around 15, 15, excluding the impact of MFE stake in ProSiebenSat.1 , as we mentioned. Moving then to CapEx, in 2023, the total amount was EUR 266 million. TV rights were EUR 383 million, and technical and immaterial investment were EUR 83.3 million.
Regarding TV rights, nothing really new in the performance. If you remember, this gap compared to 2022 was recorded in the first part of the year when Spain decided to enrich the programming grid and to increase, let's say, the investment to help the performance that actually happened. Regarding technical and immaterial, we had EUR 38.7 million of non-recurring investment that has been related to the renewal of lease contracts that, as you know, are accounted for IFRS 16, even if they are not really financial investments, but they are leases of offices and studios. As far as the 2024 guidance, we confirm the guidance we gave.
So despite the reopening of the cinema, so the increase of investment in that area, we can guide the total CapEx for 2024 at around EUR 420 million, of which EUR 270 million in Italy and EUR 140 million in Spain, lowering the level of CapEx by 10% compared to the previous year. Moving to the cash flow statement, page 23, I mean, we generated a cash flow from operating activities of around EUR 745 million. Free cash flow was almost EUR 280 million. In the equity investment line, you can find the EUR 71.7 million outflow coming from the completion of the mergers with Mediaset España and the cash out of EUR 74.3 million due to the increase of our stake in ProSiebenSat.1.
In the incoming dividend line, you can see the sharp reduction of the dividend distributed by ProSiebenSat.1 that, as I said before, was EUR 42 million in 2022 and was only EUR 3 million in 2023. As far as the year-end, we achieved the guidance we gave as far as the group adjusted net debt/EBITDA ratio of around one time. That has been achieved already taking into account the dividend distribution of around EUR 150 million. And the cash out that we already mentioned related to the merger with Mediaset España and again, despite the miss of around EUR 40 million ProSiebenSat.1 dividend. This means that the free cash flow generation of MFE was remarkable because it was able to cover both shareholder remuneration for dividends and also investment in development as Mediaset España and ProSiebenSat.1 investment was last year.
Stepping to the end of the presentation, just a few remarks regarding dividend. On page 24, the board of directors has approved to ask the AGM a distribution of EUR 140 million in 2024. That's pretty important numbers. If you combine the last four years, we are going to distribute almost EUR 750 million. That is corresponding more or less to 50% of the current MFE market cap, so a pretty large and generous, if you want, yield for our shareholder. That in percentage terms can be evaluated of almost 8% for the MFE category B shares and more than 11% as far as the MFE category A shares. Then clearly, a few words for what has been on the newspaper in the last 20 days. So our motion to the ProSiebenSat.1 AGM, I am on page 25.
I'll try to summarize a little bit this pretty, let's say, pretty important page. Our position has not really changed as far as the ProSiebenSat.1 investment. We started the investment in 2019, so it's already five years. For us, it's a long-term investment, and we are clearly very focused on the performance of this investment. We would like just to underline the fact that we are pretty scared about the level of debt of the company that has increased a lot. Clearly, I mean, you have some number in the chart. And this increase happened even in a period in which the dividend distribution has been cut almost to zero. And that's clearly scary because also what the company guided at the beginning of the year, frankly, was showing a possible increase of this leverage also in 2024.
We see the company going on in operating as a conglomerate portfolio, and that's another reason for which we saw a pretty low valuation in terms of price. Again, maybe some clarification. MFE has not proposed a spinoff, as ProSiebenSat.1 said and as many journalists reported. MFE has proposed to analyze and prepare a spinoff. So the decision on the next AGM will not be on the spinoff, but will be on the preparation. If in the AGM, the motion will be approved, the ProSiebenSat.1 manager will have to come back to the 2025 AGM with a proposal of spinoff. So nothing will happen this year. We are just asking to analyze and prepare an additional option for shareholder. Again, so no imminent spinoff, but just preparation. We have asked a refresh of the current Supervisory Board composition.
That's because we believe it's important to maintain a pretty high M&A expertise within the Supervisory Board because that's what it's necessary to accelerate the change and also to execute the strategy that the company has stated more than one year ago. I mean, clearly, we would like to give a message to the management to act quickly, also to avoid further loss of value in the interest of all shareholders. All our motions are not, let's say, refraining the management to do what they want. They can sell. They can invest. I mean, they can do whatever they want. The split preparation work, it's something that has been foreseen in the German law. I mean, it's not limiting the management to do anything. They can do whatever they want.
Frankly, we are already very happy about our announcement 20 years ago because the share price has reacted positively, almost +20% since the 20th of March, with a large, let's say, outperformance versus the peers, so showing that the market is interested in the MFE proposal. And we are also very happy about our motion also because we heard last week that the management is now more committed in selling Flaconi and Verivox. That's again, very we are very supportive of it. So the sooner they can execute that sale, the more we will be happy, and the more, I think, the share price can be upwards. Maybe just a few comments also on the recent rumors on takeover, possible or, let's say, called by ProSiebenSat.1 management, if you want.
I would like just to say, I mean, the three-month VWAP in January was EUR 5.5, and we didn't launch any tender offer. And that's probably the best, let's say, example that we are not interested in launching any tender offer because the share price, as we said, is more close to EUR 8 than to 5.5. And the reason for that is because, as we said, the debt level is too high. So that's clearly something we think would take additional risk on the share price in the future. And the other reason is that because we are not convinced at all of the business value of the non-core assets. And so the fact that the company will start in selling them will probably also clarify this value. In any case, as I said, 20 days from the announcement, we are very happy about our motion.
We think it's in the best interest of all shareholders, and we think that the share price has reacted, let's say, following that route. So clearly, the interest of all shareholders are in that direction, and we hope that the company will certainly follow, let's say, all shareholder indication coming out from the next AGM. I have completed my presentation, and now we can open the Q&A section. Thanks.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Once again, please press star one and one. If you have any questions at this time, to withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. We are now going to proceed with our first question. And the questions come from the line of Andrea Randone from Intermonte. Please ask a question. Your line is opened.
Thank you. Good morning and congratulations for the results. I have three questions, if I may. The first one is for Matteo, and it's just a comment on this good start. If you can comment on what are the main drivers behind this positive advertising performance? The second question, again, for Matteo. I mean, in Italy, since 9th of April, Amazon Prime has introduced advertising to all subscribers. Are you seeing any impact from this change? And the third question is more for Marco, I think, and is about a comment you can provide us with on ProSiebenSat.1 preliminary first-quarter results. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll take probably I'll start from the latter. I mean, it's very difficult to comment the limited set of information we received. They are not audited, and we don't know we don't have any access to any additional information. So cosmetically, they look good, even partially expected. You know better than me that first quarter 2023 has been very bad with the advertising market at -11%. So a rebound, frankly, was expected, at least from our side. And the other, let's say, non-comparable effect is the fact that the company should have experienced a pretty lighter cost structure because they have reduced at the year-end 2023 the value of their rights. And so certainly, some positive effect in terms of accounting debt impairment should have generated. In any case, just a broad comment on that. We don't look at adjusted EBITDA.
It's, frankly, a KPI that we don't understand. We look at cash. Also because clearly, the latest financial reporting of the company has been so much affected by adjustment that, frankly, we cannot follow that route. So we need to wait for the full set of numbers where we will certainly look with more detail at the cash generation. Cash flow performance, it's important for all shareholders, and I believe it's giving also the best comprehension of the operating performance of the entertainment and non-core activities. In any case, I mean, if I look at the stock performance of the day after the announcement, that was almost flat. It was slightly negative. I believe that also the financial market knew already about the non-comparable, let's say, comparison between the 2024 and 2023 quarter.
And so probably, I mean, also the market is willing to wait more detailed numbers in terms of cash to assess the real performance of the company. Matteo, maybe you can answer to the first two questions. Thank you.
Yes. Thanks, Marco, and thanks, Andrea, for the two questions. So I'll start from a comment on the good start in Q1. As I said, the new fact is that over the past four years, we got used to a pattern where all the advertising investments were, let's say, very focused on Q4. So the performance of each year was built on an outstanding Q4 performance that was immediately counterbalanced by a weak Q1 performance. I'm talking about the market as a whole. While this year, I do think thanks also to the stable macroeconomic situation, of course, we are all concerned about the Middle East situation. So it's better to be cautious anyway. But there is a stable macroeconomic situation in both countries, Italy and Spain.
And for sure, as you have seen from our analysis, the automotive sector is a key driver in this, let's say, positive underlying baseline trend of the market. This is on the demand side, so a good demand dynamics. On the offer side, we are happy because I do think that there are two main drivers. We do believe in our job. We are broadcasters. And if you are focused on the quality of your content, if you are focused on your core business, there is no trade-off between linear and digital. A good content proposition is winning in linear and extending also in the digital on-demand consumption. And that's the simple recipe that's working. And on top of that, the cross-media proposition. So what's really working very well is the fact that actually, we are offering seven different media from linear to digital.
We have the majority of our revenues that is based on clients buying more than free media out of seven in our offer. This cross-media offer is working very well and is strengthening the relationship with our clients. That drives me to the second answer. So what to say about the new Amazon advertising offer? We are looking at it with interest and no concern at all. We have already the past experience with Netflix. So a lot of the talk of the town, a lot of interest by the market 1 year and a half ago. But actually, the amount of inventory Netflix was able to offer to the market was a limited amount, very qualitative. Our insight is that they are offering at a good price, a good CPM, equal or even higher than the average CPM of Italian broadcasters.
We do expect Amazon offer could follow the same pattern. Our view of the connected TV ecosystem is that it is enriching on the upper end of the ecosystem, so Amazon, Netflix, and then Disney+. But it's not a stress because they are limited in quantity. And it's also an opportunity in terms of value because they are offering good content, good profile, and moreover, higher CPM. And that helps maintaining our good, let's say, trading up in revenue per hour, monetization on connected TV and digital screens. So I hope to have answered fully the two questions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Marco and Matteo.
Thank you. We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Julien Roch from Barclays. Please ask a question. Your line is open.
Yes. Good morning, Marco. Good morning, Matteo, Sara, and Simone, and Mario. Matteo, on page 14, thank you very much for giving us streaming hours for the first time. But could we get total hours, so linear and streaming, so we can have a complete picture? I mean, you have the data. As you said, that total audience was at 1.1%. So if we could get total hours, that would be great. Then page 25 on ProSiebenSat.1. So very clear that you want something to happen, either split or selling assets, and you're giving management the flexibility. But why did you ask to change the current authorized capital, which, according to ProSiebenSat.1, would restrict the ability to raise capital flexibly? So I want to hear your view rather than their view.
And then also, you've asked to amend the article of incorporation, which, according to ProSiebenSat.1, removed the need for supervisory approval for certain transactions. That's their view. So I want to hear your view. So that's two things on ProSiebenSat.1. And then thirdly, two numbers question. Your cost guidance, is it with or without restructuring in 2024? And if it excludes restructuring, how much restructuring do you expect versus the 43 in 2023? And how much do you pay for Mediamond? Grazie.
I'll answer also to the first question. I mean, the numbers of Infinity, so the one that has been reported for the first time, then I believe that in the next conference call, we can give additional information on the performance of, let's say, the OTT, the MFE-OTT. It's more or less 20% coming from linear viewing through streaming. So 80% is non-linear. That's more or less a stable percentage growing with the growth of the user base. But I mean, the big increase on the other end went from non-linear because we have introduced many exclusive rights in Infinity. And so that was the main reason for the big growth in terms of streaming hours.
Marco, on that, I think I wasn't clear in my question. What I wanted is the total viewing hours for, maybe you said Italy, which should be billions, right? Because for broadcast, it's usually.
No, no, no. Sorry. So I thought that the question was regarding, let's say, what has been seen, let's say, through internet.
No, no. No, no. It was.
Let's say that the disconsumption is roughly 3% of the total. It's very growing, but it's very small. Everywhere, it's more or less the same. So the amount of hours spent on internet is still low single digit, as other broadcasters are usually saying, low single digit. So 3% last year, growing, but still very low. And the other is clearly a broadcasting hour, so either through satellite or through digital direct. So then moving to the split. I mean, was ProSiebenSat.1 that anticipated this issue of the debt? Frankly, I'm repeating, we are not asking for the split. We don't know how the possible split will be done with debt allocated to one activity or the other. This is the homework that the management should perform in the next 12 months. So we don't know because we don't have inside information. We are looking at the company outside in.
The only thing we can see is that the conglomerate, let's say, portfolio is clearly depressing the value of the share price. So doing something to eliminate the holding discount, something has to be done in the way the management wants. Article 83 is a specific law in the German code. Clearly, we don't have correspondence in Italy or Spain, but I mean, in Germany, it's present. Clearly, shareholders cannot ask for the split because clearly, it's the management who is managing the company. The only thing that in Germany, the shareholder can do is asking for the preparation. It is what we have done. Certainly, we were surprised by knowing that the EBITDA of non-core assets was not supporting the same leverage than the rest because, I mean, it's a comment that, frankly, technically and professionally, we can understand.
Either the EBITDA is not real or is due to decline. I don't know. I mean, that's something we don't understand. But I mean, again, this is not the day. It's not the AGM in which we have to decide whether the allocation of debt is correct or not because debt eventually will be next year. So probably, in one year's time, we will read on the official report of the company that the split is not worthwhile. Fair enough. We will vote against. But we need the work to be done. And certainly, we will also understand why the non-core EBITDA is not supporting debt. But again, it's not now. I mean, it's not an issue of now. We will learn more about the distinctions because, again, we are not deciding the split now, but it is next year.
Then as far as the other motion, I mean, very frankly, Julien, are you okay? I'll go through.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
No, no. I'm very okay. Yeah, yeah.
Okay. So now I'm moving to the other motion. We have asked two other motions. I mean, the first one is related to increase of capital. In 2021, the shareholders, including us, approved an authorization to the management to increase capital, including the possibility to increase capital with exclusion of preemption rights. So we were approving in 2021, let's say, or we have decided that we could have been diluted, clearly, versus other shareholders, giving this authorization to management. At that time, the share price was at EUR 1.6. When we announced the motion, the share price was at EUR 6. So we said, "Maybe shareholders are not so willing now to be diluted at EUR 6." And so we just said, "Go on with your authorization to increase capital, but please do not dilute us," us meaning shareholders, "at EUR 6.
And if you want to dilute that at 6, please come back to the AGM and ask the authorization." We are not against dilution without, let's say, any kind of information. If they want to, I don't know, have new shareholders or if they want to merge or whatever they want to do, if they come back to the AGM and they will prove that this deal will create value also for us, we will give our authorization. We just said we don't want to be diluted automatically without having nothing to say at six. That was the motion regarding the freedom. But I mean, the company is free to increase capital as they want. The only thing is that they can do it without asking us anything if it is with preemption rights.
If it is without, they have to come back to the AGM and ask us the approval. The second motion was regarding reserved matter. We think that the company status quo is pretty scary, as we said, regarding debts. We have asked to include in the bylaw the fact that investment for more than EUR 50 million should be approved not only by the Management Board but also by the Supervisory Board . In that respect, it's just a sort of guarantee. We would like to have a shareholder that the company is united. The decision taken for, let's say, M&A or for material investment are shared by the two bodies. Clearly, that's very important to be sure that the entire company is focused on the fact that the company target is creating value for all shareholders.
Then the last, let's say, motion we presented was regarding, let's say, the Audit Committee , let's say, performance. Frankly, we are not happy about the Jochen Schweizer , let's say, kind of analysis. Clearly, we understand that some mistake could have been done, I mean, whatever. But I mean, so we were not happy about the transparency with which Audit Committee has carried forward the investigation that we read on the financial statement last year, started 12 months ago. And frankly, we don't know anything about after 12 months. And this, honestly, is not really so acceptable. Then more, let's say, ordinary question regarding the target or the guidance for the cost. They are excluding any restructuring costs. If I miss something, Julien, tell me. I mean.
No, no. That was great. So yeah, just two follow-ups. So the cost guidance is excluding restructuring. So what kind of level of restructuring do you expect in 2024 versus the 2023?
For the time being, frankly, very small one, EUR 5 million, EUR 6 million, just that.
All right. Then my last one was, how much you pay for Mediamond?
EUR 1 million, 1.4, 1.something, so very material as well, equal to the net worth, so.
Okay. Very, very clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you to you. Bye-bye.
We are now going to proceed with our next question. The questions come from the line of Milo Silvestre from Equita. Please answer the question. Your line is opened.
Good morning, everybody. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one concerns guidance, 2024 advertising guidance. Here, I would like to understand if you can give us some colors, some numbers about advertising guidance. The second one concerns M&A capital structure, if you can provide a sort of maximum leverage you believe is sustainable for M&A deals and whether you use EBITDA pre or post TV rights amortization in the calculation of the leverage. The third one concerns free cash flow, if you can elaborate on why free cash flow declined by 20%, more or less, while at the same time, the EBITDA adjusted grew significantly. The last question concerns EI Towers' Rai Way dossier. I could ask if you can provide some update about the situation. Thank you.
As Matteo probably has limited time, if he's still on the line, maybe you can elaborate on advertising. Then we can get there.
Yes. I'm still on the line for a few minutes. Do you want me to answer first the question on advertising trend?
Yes.
Okay. It's an interesting question. The point is that the good start of the market, to some extent, surprised all the professional operators in the market, I mean, media agencies mainly. So they haven't yet reviewed their forecast for the full year. The initial forecast was a very low single digit. But I want to remark again the point from our perspective. So we do think that there could be a re-balance between Q4 and Q1. So we think that it's quite reasonable to expect a good Q4 but not so good as the previous four years. And we have to take into account that Q2 and Q3, we are facing the European Football Championship, the Olympics. And moreover, for us, the missing of the Champions League in autumn 2024.
So all these three factors taken into account drive us not to consider the start of the Q1 as a mathematical projection for the full year. So it's quite reasonable to stay below the Q1 start for the whole year. But we don't know how much, honestly. Probably in Q1 call, in a month's time, I could add more color on that. Thank you.
Okay. I'll try to ask my question. And if I forgot something, please tell me. I mean, first of all, on the cash flow, I mean, that's a typical effect when you have a so strong last quarter. Clearly, we are not cashing in yet at the year-end the revenue of the last quarter, while clearly, on the EBITDA, debts are already accounted.
So as you will see in the first quarter, let's say, result cash will be clearly much more higher than the previous year for the same reason. Then I'll answer the easy EBITDA question. I believe that Stefano has told you to ask me. But I mean, no. I mean, that's the same question of the last conference call, probably of the last 10 conference calls. I mean, we read about positive or optimistic movement. Again, we are expecting facts. For the time being, nothing has really happened apart from the articles. And so you know our position. And there is nothing new on that side. Then moving to leverage, I mean, again, we are not thinking about anything. So we are just here to talk about technically and theoretically, if you want. We think that the correct KPIs should be EBITDA deducted by TV rights investment.
So that's the real, let's say, cash element you should compare when you look at debt. I mean, in our view, acquisition in European broadcasting area could support even 3.5-4x EBITDA. Why? Because we see a lot of synergies. So the deleverage after the acquisition, let's say, already after 12 months can be very fast. And so that's theoretically what we believe. So in terms of number, frankly, I mean, you can calculate. But I mean, it can be additional EUR 1 billion-EUR 1.5 billion easily because you should stay after the acquisition, as I said, in the 3.5x area. Then again, as I said, deleverage will happen very fast. So I don't know if I answered my question to your question.
Yes. Thank you. Quick follow-up if I may. Can you elaborate more on these synergies? What kind of synergies do you think you can achieve in such a fast amount of time?
No. The only thing that I mean, clearly, we will need probably more time than Matteo has because he has a flight today. No, that's a joke. But I mean, we can only say what we have experienced in Spain. I mean, synergies are relevant. And they are not cost. They are not only cost synergies. The cost synergies are clearly limited to the non-content part. So clearly, the full cost base is not huge. But they are relevant in the area of non-content. But the larger and the faster benefit is coming from revenue because, I mean, on digital, you can understand. On the technical aspect, you can understand. I mean, there are very, very relevant synergies coming from a European approach in terms of selling advertising. In any case, I don't think it's the right moment to discuss because we are not buying anything.
We are not considering buying anything. The only thing we can say is that the Spanish experience has proven that synergies are very fast to be achieved. It is certainly better to be larger than smaller.
Many thanks.
Okay. Thank you very much, guys. The Investor Relations Departmen t will be available for any kind of questions you may have. Thank you very much for your time. Have a great day. Bye.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your line.