Thank you, Jorge. Welcome everyone to this presentation of results for the first half of 2024. It's my great pleasure to share with you our analysis of Prisa's results. But before going into the figures, I'd like to run through some of the highlights of the company so far this year. Firstly, Prisa remains on track to achieve the 2024 targets as set out in our guidance, even though the second quarter of this year is traditionally affected by the seasonality of the business and is not of major significance to the group's overall annual results. Company operating performance has been very positive, in line with our expectations. If you look at our first half results, they've been impacted, as you know, by extraordinary items.
We've outlined those, and in the release of the first quarter results, and our CFO will provide further details. But when I exclude those extraordinary items that preclude direct comparison, revenues and EBITDA continue to show very solid operating growth. Revenues grew by 3%, and EBITDA increased by 20% in the first half of this year compared to last year. Secondly, PRISA remains focused on cash generation and debt reduction. In this regard, we're very pleased with the free cash flow of the company, which has improved by 35% compared to the first half of 2023. We've also completed the EUR 100 million convertible notes issue in the second quarter, thereby strengthening our financial structure.
This operation has allowed us to repay EUR 50 million of debt in advance, which is the most expensive debt tranche, and we've thus slashed that junior debt from EUR 185 million in 2022 to EUR 38 million, today. What's more, we have a very strong liquidity position. I'd like to highlight some of the good business performance and some of the improvements in the financial situation so far this year. Let me go through a brief summary of the group's main financial and digital indicators. On this slide, you can see that the EBITDA margin has improved by two percentage points compared to the first half of last year.
Also, the financial net debt has decreased by EUR 56 million compared to December of last year, and it stood at EUR 776 million at the end of June 2024. Thus, our net debt on EBITDA stands at 4.2x, which is also a great improvement on last year. Meanwhile, our commitment to digital transformation continues to drive the performance of some of the key digital indicators, which we set ourselves as KPIs for the group. Subscriptions at Santillana increased by 8%, and digital subscribers at El País are up by 24%. We continue to promote the development of Prisa Video and Prisa Audio in our media business, where consumption figures continue to grow quarter-on-quarter, and we're also committed to innovation and taking advantage of all the business opportunities offered by artificial intelligence.
To this end, we've reached strategic agreements with a range of different technology platforms. Those indicators highlight the growth, the momentum, and the digital transformation of the company in the first half of this year. Let's now take a closer look at those results, and I hand over to Pilar, our Group CFO.
Thank you, Joseph. Good morning, everyone. This is Pilar Gil speaking. Let me go through the presentation to give you further details regarding both the operating and financial performance of the group in this set of results. Let me start by highlighting two extraordinary items that affect the comparison of numbers in these results to better understand the underlying performance of the business. The first extraordinary item refers to some extraordinary sales that took place in Argentina in first half 2023, and that did not occur in 2024. And therefore, this has led to an EBITDA contribution from Argentina in first half 2023 of EUR 27 million, compared to an EBITDA contribution of EUR 5 million in first half 2024.
The second extraordinary item refers to EUR 10 million registered in other operating income in first half 2024 in PRISA Holding, following the positive arbitration ruling in relation to the 2020 dispute over the failed sale of the Media Capital business to Cofina. On February 2024, the arbitration court in Portugal ruled that Cofina was in breach of its obligation under the contract for the sale and purchase of Media Capital to Cofina. And as a result of this ruling, PRISA has received the advanced payment of EUR 10 million that have been deposited in an escrow account, with no impact therefore on cash flow generation as of June 2024. If we are to analyze the first half results consistently, it's important to isolate these extraordinary items.
In the period from January to June, revenues reached EUR 426 million, up 3% compared to the first half of 2023, excluding extraordinary items. This growth has been supported by the expansion of subscription models at Santillana, the improvement in advertising revenues, the increase in subscriptions to El País, and the strategic alliances with AX AI technology platforms at Prisa Media. This revenue growth has offset the lower level of public sales at Santillana Brazil, in line with expectations, and the delay in starting audiovisual productions for third parties at Prisa Media. Although the second quarter is traditionally affected by the seasonality of the business and has a lower weight in terms of total revenue for the year, it has shown a 4% growth in revenues in comparison with the second quarter of 2023, excluding the extraordinary items.
The improvement in revenues and the strict control, of course, have together contributed to generating a reported EBITDA of EUR 64 million, and excluding extraordinary items, EBITDA improved by 20% in the first half of the year, highlighting the improvement of 60% in the second quarter, Spain alone. Operating efficiency improved, with an EBITDA margin that increased by two percentage points compared to the first half of 2023. The exchange rate had a positive effect of EUR 9 million on revenues in the first half of the year, and in terms of EBITDA, the effect was negative by EUR 3 million, mainly due to the devaluation of the peso in Argentina.
Finally, let me highlight the improvement in EBIT, excluding extraordinary items, which increased by 104% compared to 2023, once again, reflecting the solid operating performance of Santillana and Media. If we move to analyze the P&L account from EBIT to net profit on next slide, it is worth to highlight the financial result improvement of 25% in the first half of the year, despite the increase in interest rates. This improvement is explained by the lower negative impact of hyperinflation adjustments in Argentina, due to the lower results in first half 2024, and by the lower negative impact with regards to the fair value of the debt in first half 2024, due to the lower year debt repayments compared to 2023.
In addition, part of the increase in interest rates has been mitigated by the positive effect of the settlement of interest rate hedge formalized in previous years. It is also worth highlighting the improvement in the equity method line, which is explained by the good performance of a radio asset in Mexico, Radiópolis, where, in addition to the good performance of the business, a capital gain associated with the sale of property has been registered. All the above explained translates into a net resource improvement of 33% compared to the same period last year. Let's move to analyze the group's cash flow generation, which has performed in line with our expectations and which also includes the impact of the new convertible notes issuance.
In the first half of 2024, EUR 59 million of cash was generated, practically in line with the first half of 2023, despite a lower net cash inflow from the most recent convertible notes issuance, EUR 99 million in 2024 versus EUR 128 million in 2023, and higher interest payments of EUR 5 million due to the increase in interest rates. These effects are offset by the improvement in free cash flow, the higher cash flows from the sale of non-core assets, mainly the sale of a distribution center in Santillana in Mexico, and lower M&A and hedging activity compared to last year. Specifically, in 2023, the outstanding payment for the acquisition of the remaining parts of Radiópolis from Grupo Coral, EUR 50 million, was recorded, and interest rate hedges were arranged for EUR 4 million.
I will now focus on the performance of free cash flow for the first half of 2024, and its comparison with the same period last year. Free cash flow is negative today, as expected, due to the traditional seasonality of business in the first part of the year. The accumulated figure to June is -EUR 9 million, compared to -EUR 15 million in the same period of the previous year, which means an improvement of 35%. Excluding Santillana Argentina, free cash flow increased by 51%. This good performance is due to the solid performance of both Santillana and Media, and taking also into consideration that in the first half of 2023, there were temporary effects on working capital arising from Santillana campaigns that were pending to be collected. Let me now review how the net financial debt has evolved in the period.
Total cash flow generation in the first half of the year led to a reduction in financial net debt, which stood at EUR 776 million, compared to EUR 832 million in December 2023, meaning a reduction of EUR 56 million, and translating into a slight improvement in the net debt to EBITDA ratio to 4.2 times. It is important to remark that the group continues to have a strong liquidity position in June 2024 of almost EUR 200 million, including both cash and available credit facilities. That said, although we have improved our financial leverage and we keep on strengthening our balances, we will continue to work on debt reduction so that our business can continue to take advantage of the great growth potential, a potential that is evidenced by the results obtained quarter by quarter.
To conclude my presentation, and after analyzing the results for the first half of 2024, I would like to reiterate that Prisa's performance to date confirms that we remain committed and on track to meet our 2024 guidance in all target indicators, achieving an EBITDA margin in the range of 19%-20% and reaching free cash flow of over EUR 60 million. I will now give the floor to Carlos, who will explain in detail.
Thank you, Pilar, and good morning to you all. I am Carlos Núñez, Executive Chairman of Prisa Media. It is my pleasure to present Prisa Media's results for the first half of 2024, which show an improvement in operating and financial indicators, and demonstrate that we have proved capable of continuing to follow our strategic roadmap in digital transformation without sacrificing our positioning in traditional markets, which remain and will continue to be resilient. Prisa Media results, as a whole, indicate that the efforts made in all business areas are producing results, and this is a great motivation for us to continue forging ahead. Our portfolio of assets, with appropriate diversification of media and geographies, give us resilience in the advertising markets.... First of all, I would like to highlight the excellent performance of our operating indicators in the first half of the year, especially our digital indicators.
PRISA Media as a whole maintained its leadership in terms of audience across all channels during the first half of 2024. We have a digital audience of almost 170 million unique browsers on average per month, though we have had a decline in unique users due to several effects, as closing content at El País, following our strategy in digital subscriptions, impact of changes in algorithms in digital distributions, distributors, mainly Google, and a strong focus in quality content. We definitely prioritize engagement of our readers in our flagship brands versus clickbait. In this sense, opposite to this decrease, we have grown in page views inventory. So far this year has been six percent, and the number of registered users has increased by 19%.
Meanwhile, we remain firmly committed to audio, and we continue to see growth for both the number of downloads, +6%, and the number of streaming hours, +10%, with a monthly average of 52 million downloads and 97 million listening hours. What's more, with regard to video, more than 181 million monthly plays were initiated during the first half of the year, an increase of +34% compared to the same period in 2023. In our markets, in radio, we exceeded 24 million daily listeners worldwide, maintaining our position of absolute leadership in the countries where we operate. In terms of print newspapers, we have an average of 1.3 million daily readers for all our titles in Spain, which represents an increase of +5% compared to the first half of 2023.
Our flagship, El País, has more than 50% audience than the second one. All in all, our audience metrics have continued to improve in the first half of 2024, and our brands continue to be leaders in the markets in which they operate. El País subscription model to grow at a steady pace in terms of subscriber acquisition. We are doing more than 75,000 gross adds per semester, with a 2.2-2.3% average churn during this period. With this, we ended the first half of the year with more than 378,000 total subscribers, which represents growth of 70,000 compared to the first half of 2023, which is +23%.
In the first half of 2024, we have continued to strengthen the leadership of our model in the Spanish language market for digital press subscriptions, and we have managed to grow at a rate which bring us closer to the goal set for 2025 of exceeding 400,000 subscribers. In terms of digital subscribers, we have reached 362,000 subscribers. That's a growth of +24% in the first half of 2024. In short, the El País subscription model continues to be the absolute leader in the digital press subscription market in Spain, and now this can be confirmed in the official auditing that has been launched by OJD. Let's now look at how advertising fared during this first part of the year. Advertising remains the chief source of revenue for Prisa Media, accounting for 74% of our revenues.
I would like to highlight that thanks to our strong and diversified media portfolio, we have managed to increase our net advertising revenue by 3%, and we have increased our market share compared to our competitors, thanks to the strength and leadership of our brands, the loyalty of our audiences, and the attractiveness to our advertisers. Within the advertising markets, we gain market share in all of these markets where we operate, compared to our competitors. Market share has grown in both Spain and Latin America. Specifically in Spain, Prisa Media as a whole grew by 1.9% in a market that has grown only 0.2%, reaching a market share of 19.7%.
In Colombia, where our advertising share is already very high, we have continued to improve, reaching a market share of 40.6% in radio. Radio in Chile shows a growth of 7.4% in local currency, in a market that has declined. This has meant an increase of one percentage point in our advertising share to 29.1%. Regarding advertising market in North America, it is worth to mention that Mexico has a brilliant evolution, which partially compensates the low performance in U.S., due to market cooling. Again, this confirms that our diversified portfolio of radio, digital press, and magazines allow us to continue on the path of advertising growth, the most important line of business in terms of revenue for PRISA Media.
Total first half revenues were up by 1%, having suffered the impact of delays in the start of audiovisual productions compared to the first half in 2023. This issue is expected to be resolved throughout the remainder of this year. Of particular note in the first half of the year was the growth in digital revenues, which were +10% higher than the first half of the previous year. We mentioned a moment ago that Prisa Media's advertising grew by 3% in the first half of the year. After a first quarter that was negatively affected by the seasonal effect of Easter, in the second quarter of the year, advertising grew by 7%, especially in radio, in Spain by 11%, and in Colombia by 24%.
Circulation revenues grew by 6%, thanks to the growth of digital subscriptions to El País, which increased by 24%, offsetting the decline in print newspaper sales. Nevertheless, El País and AS print versions keep gaining market share Monday to Sunday. In addition to advertising and circulation, other business lines have contributed EUR 25 million to Prisa Media's total revenue in the first half of 2024, which represents a decrease compared to the first half of 2023, due to the aforementioned delays in audiovisual production, which have had little impact on EBITDA. In terms of EBITDA, Prisa Media reported a figure of EUR 18 million in the first half of 2024, up by 23% compared to the same period of 2023.
In addition to the improvement in revenues, driven by very good performance of advertising and circulation, the new strategic, artificial intelligence, partnerships have compensated the lower audiovisual production. Furthermore, expenses decreased by 1% due to the reduction in variable costs, in line with the lower volume of audiovisual production, which offset the increase in personnel costs associated with CPI salary reviews and the application of new regulatory frameworks. EBITDA margin stood at 8.5%, an increase of two percentage points compared to the first half of 2023. In short, we have seen improvement in profitability and for our operating indicators, and we continue to forge ahead in our transformation.
All this without forgetting that we are a media group committed, above all, to quality, rigor, and good journalistic practice, the only valid and ethical formula capable of warranting the solid business performance of our news titles, and at the same time, of safeguarding the social role of the media. These are the objectives we have set ourselves, and we are achieving them. I would now like to give the floor to Carmen to talk to us about our education business, Santillana.
Thank you, Carlos. Good morning to all of you. I am Carmen Eulalia, Director of Corporate Management Control of Santillana. We can safely say that we have seen excellent results in this first half of 2024. Although in comparison with the previous year, our results have been impacted by the aforementioned effect of extraordinary institutional sales in Argentina in 2023. Before going into the details of the results, I would first like to focus on the performance of our subscriptions to learning systems, where we have grown in all categories. In total, we ended the half year with 2.9 million subscriptions, including Argentina, representing an increase of 8% compared to June 2023. The southern region campaigns showed growth of 4%, and the outlook for the northern region campaigns is positive.
This growth continues to be 100% organic, that is, without any acquisition of new businesses or schools. Of the 2.9 million subscriptions, our core, flexible, and global systems account for 2 million, and the rest are subscriptions to complementary or supplementary systems, mainly English language learning, but also reading and social emotional content, among others. Thanks to this cross-selling strategy, supplementary and English systems have grown by 21% compared to 2023. This growth in subscription models, as foreseen in our plan, was driven by an acceleration in the transformation of our customers away from the traditional educational model, and the good performance of our sales networks, with a retention rate of 88%. In terms of revenue, subscription models based on learning systems are Santillana's chief source of revenue, accounting for 53% of education business sales in the first half of 2024.
Total revenues from subscriptions grew by 9% to EUR 109 million in the period, including Argentina. The strong performance in southern campaign is particularly noteworthy. This improvement is due to the increase in the number of subscriptions, as well as price increases linked to inflation. Let us now analyze the performance of our different business lines. Total publishing business revenues, including not only the sale of subscription models already mentioned, but also traditional didactic sales and other operating revenues, grew by 10% in the first half of the year. Specifically, didactic sales improved by 2% in the first half. It is worth highlighting the good performance of the southern campaign and the solid start to the northern campaigns, together with a slightly earlier start for didactic sales in Mexico compared to 2023.
Also included are the revenues from the sale of the distribution center in Mexico. In terms of EBITDA, the private business showed an excellent improvement of 59%. On the other hand, the received public sales, as we expected, have declined in terms of revenues and EBITDA. Although revenues from the PNLD novelty order for fiscal year 2023 have been registered in the first half of 2024, other public sales have been lower than those recorded in the first half of 2023. This is a temporary effect related to the seasonality of the public sales and is in line with our expectations. However, there will not be a new PNLD novelty order this year, which will affect the comparison with 2023 at year-end 2024.
Finally, other markets is impacted by extraordinary institutional sales in Argentina in the first and second quarters of 2023, which have not been repeated this year. As a result, and turning now to the main financial indicators, Santillana's total revenues reached EUR 209 million and grew by 5% in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023, excluding the extraordinary effect of Santillana Argentina. Although the second quarter is not of major significance for Santillana due to the seasonality of the business, the half year totals shows a significant improvement, not only in revenues, but also in terms of EBITDA, which in accounting terms, it stood at EUR 40 million, with growth of 27%, excluding Santillana Argentina....
The improvement in sales, together with the improvement in cost efficiency, grow the reported EBITDA margin to 19.2%, an improvement of three percentage points excluding Santillana Argentina. The exchange rate effect has negatively impacted EBITDA by EUR 2 million, mainly due to the devaluation of the Argentine peso. In summary, Santillana reported robust results in the first half of the year, thanks to the growth of its private business, driven mainly by subscriptions to learning systems. I now give the floor once again to Pilar to comment on the group's progress in the area of sustainability.
Thank you, Carmen. Let me now briefly review the main sustainability developments of the group in this first half of the year. As you know, one of the constants of business sustainability strategy is the social impact that our news and education activities have on the progress of people and society, and at the same time, the ability of the content created and disseminated by our brands to raise awareness and generate opinion on the environmental and social challenges facing society. On the slide, you have all details of all the initiatives carried out, both in Santillana and Media, reinforcing the commitment with the ESG.
I would like to remark that regarding governance, the group remains committed to the ethical and transparent exercise of its business activities and reinforce our commitment to the approval of the policy for the management of the responsible use of artificial intelligence by the group's professionals in the exercise of their activities. Thank you very much, everyone, and now I'd like to give the floor back to Joseph.
Thank you, Pilar. Obviously, sustainability is very close to our hearts, and we take the matter very seriously, as you can see. Let me go through the key takeaways from these results, at least the way we look at them. First of all, I'd like to reiterate that the growth that we're seeing both in media and in Santillana is in line with our expectations, if we exclude the impact of extraordinary items in the comparison with 2023. And then secondly, I'd like to highlight the success of our new convertible notes issue, which has given a much improved financial situation to the group. Which is a testament also of the commitment and support of all our shareholders and the credibility of our project.
Finally, for yet another quarter, we've beaten or been in line with market expectations, and we're on track to achieve the objectives set out in the guidance of 2024 and in the strategic plan of 2025. With this, I think we can move on to the Q&A session. Operator?
Thank you. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please use the Q&A box available on the webcast link any time during the Q&A session. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. If you wish to ask a question via the webcast, please type it into the box and click Submit. As there are no further questions on the phone line, I would now like to hand back to Jorge Bujía Feal for questions on the webcast.
Okay, thanks, operator. First question, I think this is for media: Considering the announcement made by Vocento on Tuesday, do you see a significant slowdown in press digital advertising? Do you anticipate any impact in your estimates for the year? Why do you think that this impact is happening? Do you see that as a sustainable impact for the world?
Thank you. Yeah, in this semester, we have seen a decrease of minus 0.57% in digital press advertising. What we expect to the end of the year is, following I2p, the independent consultant that is measuring the market, a slightly improved, but just with a decline of minus 0.4% for the total year 2024. So we are not expecting a significant change in the second part of the year. The reason behind this is two-fold from our understanding.
First, we are seeing flows of digital advertising to other sectors, as radio, as connected TV, as podcast, so it is not disappearing, it's moving to other subsectors in the media ecosystem. The other reason behind this is the effect due to the impact of aggregators focused on programmatic at lower prices, and the extra compensations they give to media agencies. All of this is driving this digital press behavior during this year. Our expectation, as said, is that this is going to be the same trend in the rest of the year, so with this slightly decreased, for a total year of -0.4%. How are we managing this situation?
First, our diversified portfolio, as mentioned in my presentation, allow us to capture part of these flows, thanks to our media assets. Second, exiting as much as possible of all aggregators... only when feasible, but as Prisa Media, we are exiting on these aggregators that are pushing prices down. And third, revamping WEMASS, our joint venture with Grupo Godó and Vocento, where we aim to include new publishers to put some order in this digital advertising market for publishers.
Yeah, I'd like to, I'd like to add something on, on this. I think the weakness that we've seen in digital advertising vindicates the, the strategy of the group in terms of focusing in a relentless way on digital subscription. As you remember, when we set out our plan in 2022 for 2025, we set out some very ambitious objectives and KPIs for the group. Those were number of subscriptions for Santillana and also the digital subscriptions for El País. We've had tremendous success in terms of gaining a lot of market share with the digital subscriptions of El País, but this objective and this ambition has also been driven, I may say, by the fact that we want to diversify away from advertising and digital advertising in, in, in particular.
So kudos to Carlos and his team for a great work. And, those very resilient numbers that we're seeing on the media side, and particularly on the press side, versus some of our competitors are a testimony that our strategy is functioning.
Jorge?
Thanks, Carlos. Thanks, Joseph. We have another question, again, for media. The EBITDA margin for media has been set across the board, radio and press. Could you explain the reason behind this improvement? There is obviously some operating leverage when we look at radio, but the beat is very strong. What is behind this?
Thank you, Jorge, and on the question, for the question. Three reasons behind this. First, as mentioned, the operating leverage, especially in radio. Second, digital subscriptions. Bear in mind that we have more than 90% of contribution margin in our digital subscribers. And third, obviously, our agreement in artificial intelligence, that obviously reinforces this margin boost. The combination of all these three effects explains this very good performance in terms of margin.
Thanks, Carlos. And now we have one last question, in this case for Santillana. How have effects made in Brazil impacted Santillana this quarter, and what can we expect for the following quarters, where you will see volumes bounce back?
Well, we are following very closely the evolution of the rate. But we believe that it will have a great impact in Brazil for us, in the second half of the year.
Okay, thanks.