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Earnings Call: Q1 2023

May 24, 2023

Operator

Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sara Bersan. Please go ahead.

Sara Bersan
Head of Investor Relations, MFE-MediaForEurope

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the MFE first quarter 2023 results presentation. Let me introduce immediately the speakers of today. The presentation will be hosted by our Group CFO, Marco Giordani, by Matteo Cardani, Managing Director of Publitalia. Let me hand over immediately to Matteo for the advertising and audience outlook. Matteo, please go ahead.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Thank you, Sara. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for your attendance. Today, we comment on Q1 2023 results. Beginning with the overall economic scenarios, there are some positive remarks. We can report an ongoing positive evolution in the confidence index for both businesses and consumer, as you can see in chart number 3. In the following chart, you can appreciate another positive thing, that this positive confidence index is reflected in actual dynamics of goods and services consumption. The overall is +1.7%, services growing by 6.6%, and goods by 0.2%. The third remark is that with regard to the gross domestic product, the conjunctural and trend variation of GDP for Italy in Q1 are both positive, +0.5% and +1.8%.

Moreover, the forecast for 2023 is positive, +0.7%, in line with the Euro area forecast on average, and relatively better is compared to other South European countries. Having said that, we move to chart number 5. Here we have another positive news is that the advertising market in Q1 2023 is growing by 3.5% year-on-year. These reflect the positive, the relatively positive overall economic scenario. Specifically, you can appreciate the growth of media such as radio, digital, and out of home, and the positive trend of our competitors in the TV sector.

This is due to an easier comparison, aka against the Q1 2022, and to the fact that the rest of the market is recapturing only now losses registered in Q1 2020. In fact, as you can see also from the Q1 advertising revenue index on the right side of the chart, you can appreciate the following pattern. This chart shows the progression of MFE advertising revenue on a yearly basis, focused on Q1, so between Q1 2020, indexed at 100, and then Q1 2023, against the total market and against the rest of the market, excluding MFE. Already from 2021, MFE was able to recapture the losses registered in Q1 2020 by growing year by year.

On the contrary, the rest of the market is recovering only now with a rebound towards previous years. If we move to page 6, the MFE overall performance in Q1 2023 is +0.54% year-on-year. The remarkable positive thing is that we are consolidating the growing trend of past years. In Q1 2021, we grew by 6.1%. In 2022, the Q1, we grow +2.0%. We are building the pro general Q1 positive performance year after year. Having said that, with regard to the overall advertising scenario and our revenue collection trend, we move to the following chart. As in the past conferences, we explained this positive performance looking at the two main drivers enable MFE to achieve these results.

A solid weighted contribution of growing sectors and a growing audience share. Let's start from the sector dynamics in Q1 2023. In chart number 7, we can see another positive news because the news is that in the growing sectors, we have the strong recovery in the automotive sector. There is a +27% in advertising, and this is aligned with recovery in car sales. +10% in private car sales in Q1 for the sector. The good news is that for the first time over the past 3 years, automotive sector, still a strategic sector for our revenue collection, regains the positive field, and we are happy about that.

We have both a conjunctural recovery plus a structural support in advertising expenditure. To accelerate the transition to new car models with alternative power systems, I mean hybrid and electric and so on. We have a confirmed global trend in personal care, toiletries, leisure and most of all, tourism. This is another strategic sector contributing by 1% to the overall GDP dynamics in 2022 and is growing double-digit. Generally speaking, a stable or a slightly decreasing level of advertising investment for food, pharma and retail, which are counterbalancing the performance of weaker sectors in this Q1, telcos, finance and out of. All in all, the weighted contribution to the MSE performance is a positive, a positive one. In chart number 8, you can see the detail of retail sales trend by sector.

Value retail sales trend by sector. Again, you appreciate the fact that 90% of MFE advertising revenue derives from sectors that in Q1 had a positive sales trend. There are only a remaining 10% of advertising revenue that are connected with sector that in Q1 had a negative, or I would say, but a flattish sales trend, so clothing and communication. This with regard to sector dynamics. We move to chart number nine. The second driver of MFE result is the good health of our Total Audience performance. In page nine, we have our solid leadership in Total Audience on our commercial target with 40.8% audience share, and these are combining linear and digital audience.

I would like to underline that the main competitor is over 7 points behind MFE. The other thing that is relevant is that from now on, thanks to the fact that we can rely on Total Audience Auditel data, we are going to report this number as share in Total Audience from now on. Anyway, moving to the next chart, the slide number 10, you can appreciate the hybrid configuration of our Total Audience. There is resiliency and more stability of linear audience, thanks to the strength of our programming offer. On top, the strong growth of digital screens. The combined effect grow to a Total Audience growth of +1.6% versus 2019. This adds +2.3% to the traditional audience performance.

To other relevant things in chart number 11 and 12. In chart number 11, you see that the combination of connected TV and second screen keeps adding viewers with a younger profile, complementary to linear TV audience. Younger profiles deliver the additional benefit of a higher CPM compared to linear television. This comes to the last chart I'm commenting on for Italy, chart number 12. The migration from linear to digital allows pricing aside because addressable TV, and generally speaking, digital screen are characterized by a higher revenue per hour compared to the linear offer. The good news that we have a positive monetization trade up. In simple words, each hour moving from linear to digital delivers an increase in revenue collection.

The last two chart of my presentation, we move to MSC, Mediaset España advertising performance in Q1 2023. The overall trend of MSC advertising revenues is -4.7%. Honestly, this reflects the trends of the main medium in our portfolio, TV. As in other European countries, the TV advertising market in Spain in Q1 was negative, around -5.0%. Of course, this strongly condition our MSC performance. Even if the progression is improving from a bad start of initial months of Q1, overall, the trend for the quarter was mid-single digits down and ending in a positive field in March.

As in Italy, there is good news that the automotive sectors turn to a positive advertising growth driven by increase in car sales. Last but not the least, on page 14, Shows a very good result in term of linear audiences on commercial target in Q1, in which MFE is the leader above Atresmedia with a 28.5% share. This leadership is also confirmed by April button. The last remark, from an organizational point of view, things are evolving positively. We have a new structure and the Italian and Spanish sales force with the sale houses are working more closely together. Best practices in monetization of free screens, so TV, connected TV, digital, are starting to be shared between the two countries.

This will allow the group to grab new opportunities of growth in the advertising space. As far as advertising is regarded, I finished, and I hand over to Marco for the financials. Thank you.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Thank you, Matteo. Good morning to everybody also on my side. Welcome to the results presentation. Before entering in the results, I would like to share with you our satisfaction for the completing cross-border merger with Mediaset España, as has been announced on the third of May. I would like also to thank all the teams, the Spanish and the Italian team, because we carried out it in a very smooth and fast way. The result has been rich only because all the team worked together in a very professional way. Thanks to all the team.

Following the merger, clearly now we are going to present the number reflecting a Mediaset view, clearly always giving the geographical details and then entering in the results and in the numbers. Despite the slightly lower revenue compared to first quarter 2022, we were able to reach almost EUR 20 million group EBIT with a +26% compared to last year, first quarter. We accounted a group net profit of EUR 10 million, 4 times higher than last year. In terms of group net financial position at the end of March, the debt were EUR 731.7 million, in line with last year's number.

Moving through the P&L in terms of revenue, we are on page 17 now. Clearly Matteo has already commented the advertising line. I'm clearly now entering in the other revenue. As anticipated and as already guided, we are targeting a flat number for the full year 2023, flat on actual number last year. As a remind for you, I mean clearly It's a conglomerate for online, in which we are accounting sales of scripted content, sales of in-house content to third parties, subscription of our APT services, retransmission fee of our TV channel. It's a pretty complex and with a lot of components line.

I confirm that we can stay flat on last year. In terms of EBIT we generated, as I mentioned before, EUR 19.3 million EBIT. As you can see, we are in full control in terms of cost. Clearly inflation, it's clearly taking higher price of on several items, but we were able to stay below last year in terms of first quarter, and we are guiding the full year with a flat number despite inflation, as I said. Guidance for the full year will be EUR 2.47 billion cost line. Clearly, all will be also related to the top line, but that's what we are guiding today.

Inflation will be clearly offset with other savings, while programming costs are said to be flat on last year. Below the EBIT line on page 18, we already commented the net profit of EUR 10 million. Financial charges were negative for EUR 5.6 million, in line with our expectation. We already told you clearly that interest rates growth will affect that line for the full year. Regarding associated, the line has been positive for EUR 2.9 million.

While minorities are clearly still present in our P&L because in first quarter 2023 we were still accounting Mediaset España with minorities, while from the 1st of April 2023 100% of Mediaset España will be consolidated in Mediaset number. In terms of guidance, we can confirm the guidance of almost EUR 10 million of higher financial charges compared to 2022 due to interest rate trends that you know better than us. As far as dividends, clearly we have now the ProSieben declaration in terms of dividends. That's clearly been much lower than last year.

As you remember, ProSieben as announced, we propose to the next AGM, a dividend per share of EUR 0.05 compared to EUR 0.80 of last year. That clearly will affect our P&L as well. The associate line, the guidance for the full year is EUR 15 million. Moving to page 19 and entering the two geography in which we are running. I mean, the two countries perform more or less in the same trend. The two countries performed in terms of EBIT better than last year, with Italy with a more or less flat total revenue line and with lower cost. With, as I said, a pretty better performance in terms of EBIT line.

As far as the Spanish business is concerned, it's a little bit a mixed effect with lower revenue and lower costs. Also in Spain, we are recording a better EBIT than last year. Moving to page 20. In terms of CapEx, we are confirming the guidance for a full year, that is gonna be EUR 410 million for both Italy and Spain, with EUR 270 million for Italy and EUR 140 million for Spain, a little bit more than last year in Spain. That's clearly our forecasting now. Clearly, maybe that will be also affected by audience performance.

As Matteo was saying, now audience in Spain are pretty good, maybe some of these investments that are forecasted would be saved because audience will perform better than last year. I would like just to remind you that in Spain, Mediaset España was able to recapture the leadership they have lost in August last year. That has been a pretty remarkable performance of the new team there. We are very happy about that. Frankly, we were expecting a later, so, a delayed, let's say, recapture in our forecast. While as I said, they were very good and smart in doing it earlier. That clearly will affect as well the performance for the full year. Moving to the cash flow.

I mean, the two countries are clearly generating cash. We are recording in the first quarter, the investment in Mediaset España share we have communicated in February for EUR 15.5 million. We can confirm the guidance for a full year to reach EBITDA, a net debt to EBITDA ratio of around 1 times, already taking into account the dividend distribution we are going to propose to the MFE AGM in June. Also already taking into account the cash out related to the merger with Mediaset España withdrawal right has been has created a cash out of almost EUR 60 million.

This means that free cash flow generation is able to cover both shareholder remuneration through dividends and also extraordinary projects as the MFE merger that was mentioned. Lastly, on page 22, I wanted just to remind the present structure of the group. Just reminding the numbers of MFE A shares and MFE B shares that you can see on page 22, as I said. The other important element I would like to underline is the present, let's say stake in ProSieben. That is that's been announced last Friday. That is recording a 26.6 almost of the share capital in direct ownership, while we are still owning 2.29 secured shares through financial instrument.

The total, let's say, secured investment in ProSieben, it's around 29% of the share capital, a little bit more in terms of voting rights. Thank you for your attention. Now we can pass to the Q&A session.

Operator

Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to 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, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one. We will now go to your first question. One moment, please. Your first question. One moment. Comes from the line of Fabio Pavan from Mediobanca. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Fabio Pavan
Executive Director and Senior Equity Analyst of TMT, Towers, and Gaming, Mediobanca

Yes, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. We have read about ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE resuming talks about the potential merger in Germany. I was wondering if you have any comment on this. More in more general terms, I was wondering, what's your view about potential tie-ups between free-to-air and pay TV businesses, and how this may fit with your pan-European ambition? Many thanks.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Thank you, Fabio. I mean, as you know, we are not represented in the supervisory board of ProSieben. We have no other information that you all have. What I can say is that we have not been informed by ProSieben on any kind of negotiation or intention. Frankly, I mean, I didn't see even any comment on the rumors appeared a couple of days ago on the press. Frankly, it's very difficult to make any comment on rumor. Just as a general sentence, we would be interested in knowing a little bit more about the perimeter of the potential deal that we don't know before making any assessment or comment.

Again, as a general statement, we have a pretty large and extensive experience both in free-to-air and pay TV and also in the integration between free-to-air and pay TV. As you remember, we were running the two activities since 2018, if I'm not going wrong. I mean, the only thing that I can say is that we are still stuck with the public statement made by ProSieben almost one month ago. Frankly, we didn't hear anything about possible acquisition of assets in pay TV at the time. As I said, we don't have any other information, so it's very hard for us to comment more precisely than that.

I hope that, Fabio, I hope that, I gave you some call on that.

Fabio Pavan
Executive Director and Senior Equity Analyst of TMT, Towers, and Gaming, Mediobanca

That's okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. We will now go to your next question. Your next question comes from the line of Stefano Gamberini from Equita. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

Good morning, everybody, and thanks for taking my questions. The first is regarding the trend, advertising trend in May, April, but mainly in May, both in Italy and Spain. What is this trend and what we can expect with the visibility you have right now for the 2Q? The second question regarding the free cash flow. The free cash flow declines from EUR 220 million to EUR 160 million, so around less EUR 60 million. If you can elaborate a little bit about this decline despite the results were flat, as well as the net working capital in first co, which was positive, the free cash flow the cash generation for net working capital.

Is this a seasonal effect and this will be reabsorbed during the year, or it is something that will continue all the year? The last question regarding the trend in costs. You spent a guidance of flat costs, but this could be changed depending on the trend of advertising. What is we can say the flexibility you have, both in reducing and increasing probably OpEx related to the trend of advertising? Thanks a lot.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Thank you, Stefano. I mean, I will try to tackle your, all your questions. I mean, first of all, on working capital, clearly there is a seasonality. I can say that, very frankly, working capital in the medium long term is neutral. Everything that you can experience in one quarter is set to be absorbed either the next or the following one. I mean, as I said, if you look at the cash flow on a, on a longer period of time, a couple of years or three years, at the end of the day, it's all neutral. As far as the cash flow on, on the quarter, again, I wouldn't, let's say, focus on that.

It's a, it's a mix of, let's say, previous quarter performance in terms of revenue, because clearly cash flow is very much affected by seasonality first and also by investment that, as I told you then, maybe in the other months of the year will be then. Sorry, the last question, I cannot remember on. Last question was on, Stefano, can you.

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

Yes.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

On what?

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

I had still two questions remaining. The first is regarding the advertising trend in May-

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Yes.

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

The last one was the flexibility you have...

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

I know, yes.

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

-on the OpEx.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

I mean, yes, the flat number is clearly a number we are forecasting based on a flattish top line, because clearly we have in any case, variable costs, as you can imagine, access or commercial costs or Payments to content, let's say, the CI and the outdoor kind of royalties are paid on the top line, clearly. That clearly can move easily and in a very automatic way following top line. As far as other costs, I mean, that's what we believe can be good in maintaining also the share performance in terms of audience. That is very important for us, not only for the current year, but for a long-term value of the group.

I believe that one of the best results that we were able to capture in Italy, now also in Spain, is the fact that we were able to maintain that audience. Frankly, that's not always the case if I look around Europe. That's something we are going to protect almost in any case because that's their long-term value for the company. In terms of flexibility, as we have proved also last year, certainly we have flexibility. For the time being, also looking at the first quarter revenue, we don't see any reason to act differently from an ordinary year. I told you in the investment line, we have also some possibility to invest a little bit more in Spain if needed.

The audience performance of these days are not suggesting us that we need anything else in terms of content. For the time being, the year is running very ordinary, and so we are managing the company on a pretty stable cruising attitude. Matteo, I'll leave you to comment on the business trend in terms of revenue.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Okay. I thank you, try to answer to Stefano Gamberini's question. As you know, we do not comment on single month performance, but I can give you, let's say, some more color on Q2 evolution. We are today more or less in the middle of Q2 period. Overall, as I commented at the beginning, the macroeconomic scenario and the advertising markets both in Italy and in Spain are relatively positive, also as compared to other top European countries. What I can say is that with regard to Italy, we can share the fact that the first part of Q2 started showing an year-on-year trend broadly consistent with Q1.

We still remain in the positive field, but luckily, the visibility remains low over the next month. We don't have any outlook for the remaining part of Q2, even if it is worth remarking that starting from the month of June, the year-on-year comparison base gets easier because last summer, in 2022 June and Q3 were quite tough for the overall market. Something similar could be also said with regard to Spain, where the interesting thing is that the first part of Q2 was positive, extending the positive progression of the last part of Q1.

With regard to the second part of May, there are some uncertainties due to the administrative and regional elections scheduled for the end of month, and this may cause some postponement in main institutional advertisers, I mean. At present, we haven't yet got fully visibility on the advertising collection for the month of June. For both countries, we could say good start of Q2. The first half is in line with the positive progression in both countries, but we have still limited visibility for the remaining 6 weeks of this quarter. Okay, I hope that answered, and I hand over to the conference manager.

Operator

Thank you. Thank you. We will now go to your next question. Your next question comes from the line of Andrea Randone from Intermonte. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Andrea Randone
Head of Mid Small Caps Research, Intermonte

Thank you. Good morning to everybody. I have two questions. The first one is on football. I mean, football season has experienced a very exciting final part, especially for Italian teams. Can you comment on the impact, also qualitative impact on your numbers? Also what do you expect for this part of your programming in the future? I know it's a quite complex question, but if you can help us in understanding the situation. The second question is about Spain and, I mean, you completed the merger and, you are showing a very good results from implementing Total Audience in Italy.

I wonder if you can help us in understanding what do you expect for Spain, if the Italian system can be replicated in Spain, and more in general, if you can update us on the synergies, revenue synergies you are expecting after the merger? Thank you.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Thank you, Andrea. I mean, broadly on football, clearly, the Champions League rights helped in terms of audience in May and also April. That's clear. The final will help us in June. I believe that it's a combination of good audience, but also good investment coming from, let's say sport-focused investors, typically automotive, that as Matteo was mentioning, are investing more than last year, materially more than last year. Certainly, it's a good season for us and clearly that's part of the game. You cannot count every time a good season. As part of the average performance of football, we are always counting when we are bidding for football rights. More structurally, we confirm our opportunistic approach.

We know that football rights are pretty expensive and we are clearly tendering for auction in a very rational way. We don't need football at any condition. We tend to make pretty rational auction offer. Sometimes we get it, some others less than that. As you know, for instance, Sky took Sky and Amazon took the exclusivity on the next 2025-2028 Champions League. We clearly offer, but as I told you, with a pretty rational approach. Frankly, if other are a little bit more irrational than us, fair enough. We can run the business without football in, without any problem. We will keep going.

I mean, we will keep going, with this approach also for the future, both in Italy and in Spain. I don't know, Matteo, do you want to answer on Total Audience in Spain and?

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Yeah.

Marco Giordani
CFO, MFE-MediaForEurope

Yeah. Okay, thank you.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Yes. No, no. I thank Andrea for the question because it gives me the opportunity to, let's say highlight structural differences between the two markets, because in Italy we have a joint industry committee, so Auditel, and another joint industry committee, Audicom, for digital and print. This is, let's say, the main driver in building Total Audience in Italy as the standard currency for the whole market. We are looking for the next part of this year to a further step in Total Audience, so Total Audience by editorial program. So we could give the market, I don't know, the Total Audience of our main programming flagship properties.

By the end of the year, beginning of the year, we are on the roadmap of Auditel, there is the possibility to deliver a total audience measurement even for advertising campaigns. The situation in Spain is strongly different because there is no joint industry committee achieving the same goal and ensuring the market to have a common standard currency as Barb in UK or whatever. There is a sort of Media Rating Council that is a place where all the market stakeholder converge. They simply let's say give a sort of validity proof to any measurement offer that is present in the market.

At the very end, the audience measurement, both for television and digital, rely on private commercial initiatives, so Kantar for TV and GfK for digital. For the time being, there is no market initiative to get to a Total Audience currency. Having said that, the interesting thing, the lucky thing is that, as I mentioned in the last remark of my presentation, we have been working together with our Spanish colleague in marketing, digital marketing and operation since the last part of the past year. This is a very, very interesting experience because we are, let's say, building the best of both in our offer to the market.

Both of us, we have a very consistent tools and approach in delivering cross-media Total Audience and cross-media post valuation for advertising campaign. We are building, let me say, the best of both in terms of measurement offer based on the same customer data platform in both countries. On top of this first-party data plus official market data, we are going to deliver our Total Audience measurement, let me say by the second part of 2023, and this is something we could talk about after summer. This is the situation. The current standards in Italy, not the current standard in Spain, but as MFE, one of our ambition is to deliver a consistent cross-media Total Audience measurement for our campaigns to any clients in both countries.

I have to answer, and I hand over again to the conference management.

Operator

Thank you.

Stefano Gamberini
Equity Research Analyst, Equita

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Grazie.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take our last question for today. The last question for today comes from the line of Julien Roch from Barclays. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Yes. Good morning, everybody. First question is for Marco. Just to double-check, all the guidance you've given, so flat for other revenue, EUR 2,470 for cost, et cetera, that is now for both countries, right? It's from MFE overall, you're no longer doing it for Italy only or giving us a split.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Yes. Confirm.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Yeah. Then a quick one. What was purchase price amortization for spend in Italy in Q3, in Q1? Historically spend is EUR 2.2 million.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Can you say it again? I didn't get it.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Purchase price amortization. 'Cause you report EBIT, not EBITR. Usually.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

It's consistent with last year. I mean, the PPA on Spain is exactly the same than we had last year because it was the Quattro acquisition purchase price allocation. Nothing more than that. As far as the goodwill we are paying on, let's say Mediaset España in MFE, all that will go on the network and will not be amortized.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Okay. Two questions for Matteo. The first one on page 9, you're now showing us total audience performance, but I assume does not include everybody, i.e. you don't have YouTube, you don't have TikTok, you don't have Netflix in there. It's the total audience of, like, the traditional players. That's the first question. The second question is why is Italy doing much better than other key markets in Europe? I mean, France, Germany, U.K. are down around double-digit, if not more. I understand you say, well, it's because we now have total audience and the other countries don't have it, but I would think that's not enough to explain, like, a 10-15 point difference in growth. Any other reasons you think Italy is doing so much better than everybody else?

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Sorry, Julian, I got the first question. While on the line is a little bit disturbed, so I didn't get the initial part of your second question. If you can kind of...

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

If you look at page 9.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Yeah.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

... you are giving us Total Audience, and you said at MFE has.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

No, no. That's clear. It's the second-

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Okay. The second question is why is Italy doing so much better than any other key market in Europe? I mean, France, Germany, UK are down around double digit. I understand one of your explanation is that you have total audience measurement in Italy and not in other countries, I don't think it's enough to explain a 10, 15 point performance difference. What are the reasons?

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Yeah, yeah. You're right. Okay. I got it, the whole part of the second question. I start from the first one. Yes, you're perfectly right. For the time being, our Total Audience performance is reporting against the standard perimeter, so the broadcaster perimeter. To some extent, okay, this is our Total Audience performance in the broadcaster competitive arena, so linear plus broadcaster video on demand. This is a sort of, let's say, captive market to some extent. In a way, as I mentioned before, in Italy, there is an ongoing initiative, 2023, 2024 will be the decisive time.

I mentioned the fact that we have two JICs, two joint industry committees, Auditel and Audicom. There is a sort of a Media Rating Council coordinating the two joint industry committees. This is, this council to some extent is promoted and coordinated by the Advertiser Association in Italy, so UPA. The interesting thing is that currently we have the measurement of anything that is running on first screen beyond the broadcasters. For the time being, it's reported in the so-called unmatched viewing. That is, let's say, not an ongoing reported currency and a reported matrix.

We have, let's say, raw data about all the other players running on the first screen, and Audicom will take care of the measurement of anything that goes on on the second screen. We are building the platform where any player in the market who has set and won't be audited by a third party, a joint industry committee, could find, let's say, its home in either one or the other joint industry committee. This is the whole picture and we just think that DAZN has been the first mover, so it was a virtual case, and let's see what happens.

We are building the measurement system. If an over-the-top player is willing to be measured in the near future, it will be possible. While moving to your second question, yes, you're right. Typical industries in both countries, first of all, tourism that are a main driver in the positive trend. Last but not the least, the fact that we are in two countries where the relative weight of TV compared to digital is still relevant, at least parity, while in other countries, I have in mind UK, for example, the proportion is completely different. TV is still central in advertiser choice. For sure, total audience helps because it gives, let's say, full visibility to the effort as a broadcaster we are putting evolving our offer.

We have some very interesting performance. I calculated that on our top 20 programs, we have on average an additional Total Audience due to on-demand and second screen live streaming more or less equal to +7%. This is the driver, the fuel for the connected TV and digital growth. Sorry for the long answer, but I hope to have covered your 2 questions.

Julien Roch
Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst, Barclays

Yes. Very clear. Thank you very much, Matteo.

Matteo Cardani
General Manager of Marketing and Ad Operations, Publitalia '80

Grazie.

Sara Bersan
Head of Investor Relations, MFE-MediaForEurope

Thank you, Matteo, and thank you, Marco. Thanks guys for all the questions and for taking the time for the conference call of today. As always, we'll be available for any question, information you would like to ask. Have a good day. Bye.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.

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