Earnings Call: Q2 2021

Jul 28, 2021

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the TF1 Group conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Gilles Pélisson, CEO, and Philippe Denery, CFO. Gentlemen, please go ahead. Good morning to all of you. Very happy to share with you these very good results of our 1st year, 2021, following a very non-typical 2020. The presentation will be in 3 parts. Coming back on the highlights of this 1st semester and the activity review, then going over with Philippe on the financial results, and then sharing the growth perspective that we see ahead of us. First of all, we have decided to adapt our presentation and merge the digital activity following some reorganization within the group that I wish to do to bring together the ad sales activity of Unify closer to our main ad sales team, meaning for that the digital activities under Unify would merge into what is now called the media part of the group. The media entity, and rename the whole thing Media. It's based, first of all, in line of the growing synergies that we wish to have between what used to be broadcasting and the digital segments. It reflects the organizational changes which we announced on June 23rd. It also reflects the fact that in the former studio and entertainment part, with the disposal of the games allow us to move back the music activity into media. I guess it will give you a better visibility on Newen's performance and expansion, especially as we move forward expanding Newen on an international basis. You know that they are already operating in seven countries. Along those lines, going back to the highlights and activity review of this first half of the year. It has been a very busy first half of the year, as you may see on this chart, with some calendar fragmentation. started, of course, with the acquisition of Fiction House, building up on Ringside Studios that we had acquired earlier. It gives us a foot for Newen into the U.K. market. We do believe that it is very strategic and important to be a player in that part of Europe. It was the disposal of the games. It was the acquisition in Spain of our first studio, then in iZen. Major player in Spain with the El Cid fiction series which is on Amazon Prime, followed by Kubik, which was also a minority shareholding that we took in this Spanish studio. HPI, which has been the blockbuster in France on TF1 with 12.4 million viewers, we will come back on that. Of course, in mid-May was the announcement of our project of merging with the M6 Group, followed by the Euro, which as you know, we share with the M6 Group in term of broadcasting. If the French team was not exactly where we expected it to be, nevertheless, we managed to have, with the split of the games, a fairly good share or lion's share in the split with 3 games of the French team, which are, of course, meaning higher ratings. It was aufeminin, which the whole portal was revamped, and I think in a very positive manner. Then, of course, at the end of June, the announcement that A&E, the American media group, a subsidiary of Disney and Hearst, would take 35% ownership of Reel One, which is our Canadian subsidiary specializing in TV movies and which is a very good and strong signal of trust and confidence for the future as they are also a major client of Reel One. We were looking forward to this association and seeing it coming through is really an excellent news on the Newen part. Coming back on the media. In terms of the duration of time for the viewing. When we merge the video approach into a global approach, of course, there is the linear consumption, which still remains fairly high in France at 3 hours and 45 minutes for the whole population older than 4 years old. It is a 17 minutes addition to 2019 when 2020 was very non-typical in term of viewership and was, of course, at a maximum level of 4 hours. It's a little bit less, but nevertheless, it's a plus versus 2019, so it's very encouraging for us. Of course, on the online video side, it is still progressing, and you will see that with MyTF1, we are having very good result. Nevertheless, overall, it is 52 minutes. It's a 14-minute progression versus 2019. When you talk about SVOD, and you know that with Salto, we are also very concerned with SVOD from now on. It is 2 hours and 19 minutes per subscriber. Of course, when you put it on a broader base of the population base, it is 31 minutes, but it is nevertheless 35% increase, which means that this is where people are moving, and especially the younger audience. Coming back on our ratings. The group is posting very strong results as a group for women under 50, 33.5%, which is a 1.6% increase over 2020. More encouraging is 0.8% against 2019. For us, this is really the results showing how much the multi-channel approach that we have picked to do at the TF1 Group is working out. By that, I mean, of course, a strong TF1, which remains, of course, the main focus of our activity. Posting 22.5% on the first semester, this is definitely a unique phenomenon in Europe. As a channel, we still have 50% advantage versus M6, which is the main private competitor. Where we are fairly quite pleased with our situation at the end of first half 2021 is, of course, that TMC and TFX are progressing both, as you can see on this chart, at 4.7% and 3.6%. These are very encouraging results, which we wanted to share with you this morning. LCI, the all-news channel at 1.5%, which is also very encouraging. On the 25-49 target, very good performance as well. As you see, 30.5%. This is 0.9 points higher than 2020, but it's also 0.9 higher than 2019. Here, too, major progress boosted by TF1. TF1 at 20.6% is definitely a major player on the younger audience, which is typically not recognized in the market. TMC performing extremely well with a +0.6%, and TFX at 2.8%. Moving to what is behind this success and this very high performance and exceptional performance. As you know, we have chosen to be targeting at multi-genre activity, meaning by that, we want to remain the leader, a very strong leader on news. The bulk of our activity is, of course, on prime time. What is amazing in the first half of 2021 is that we posted 45 prime times over 6 million viewers in France. This is a progress when you compare it to 2019 of 24 prime times more than 2019, which is just amazing. We are very, very pleased, and this is due to, of course, a little bit sports with the Euro, but that came at the very end of the semester. The French fiction, and especially series like HPI, has been a booster. Entertainment with Koh-Lanta, with The Voice is very strong, has been very strong. Of course, our access prime time, where we thought totally our access is paying off with those very good ratings. At the end of the day, what that means is that the advertisers are following and kind of love it. They are gradually coming back, as you can see on this chart. You're seeing the progress between the first quarter and the second quarter of 2021. The first quarter versus 2020 was kind of flat, and you had seen that in our previous results. There was definitely an acceleration in second quarter. The results of last year were very low. It's a 72% acceleration in terms of broadcasting advertising revenue. Let's say the industries which are still affected at the end of the quarter are still a little bit of food, even if they are coming back. Cosmetics, the car industry, which is kind of in recess. Of course, travel and tourism has not recovered at full speed, even if we are seeing more and more advertisement as the summer came for traveling, and traveling in France or traveling abroad. Of course, health and utilities are a little bit back. The ones which are fully recovered are retail, the telcos, finance, culture, leisure, beverages, textile, clothing, household, cleaning, others, meaning by others, also a lot of internet activity, a lot of internet player, what we call pure players, which are taking a lot of advantage of TV advertisement. Of course, our ad sales is ready to benefit from this recovery, and we have an ambition positioning our offers to size these opportunities. It starts with synergies in ad campaigns, and we want to develop that and the new organization will facilitate such a goal. It is having this offer on TF1 and Unify, which of course will convince further in our fight against Google, against Facebook, on digital, that you can combine the best of TF1 and Unify. AdVize, which is a product, of course, recommended by a TF1 digital brand like Marmiton, but on TF1 channel, enabling a retailer like Lidl to have the best of both. It is expanding the customer base and as you know addressable TV has been authorized in France. We are trying to take advantage of this as much as we can with partnership with Orange and Bouygues Telecom, which are the first partners with which we have developed the technological tools to facilitate it. We are at very early in the game, nevertheless, we are seeing the first campaign with local advertisers. To boost the sales, we have partnered with one of the leading e-commerce site in France, Leboncoin, to benefit from their sales force team and try to get to the smaller announcers that they are going after. Therefore, without initiating our own sales force, we want to capitalize on that partnership. Then finally, as we are heavily committed in terms of sustainability and wanted to be the leader in that field, our ad sales team organized a campus dedicated to eco-responsibility. Then we took the initiative to launch an EcoFunding, meaning by that whenever you will have in an ad, the logo of a standard or something which has been verified, proved, and guaranteed, I guess, by some certified environmental institution. Whenever this advertiser will post that in his advertisement, meaning by that saying to the consumer, "Yes, you can trust my product," then this kind of advertising will be participating to an EcoFunding. We will give free time on our channels through advertisement to those advertisers, quoting them, giving them credit for doing that. It will be good initiative, positive, and I think it is our role as a leader to, of course, enforce that. On the ESG commitment, of course, it is at the heart of the Group strategy. We just wanted to particularly emphasize the fact that we obtain a C+ rating from ISS ESG, achieving prime status within the media sector. Then for the rest, through our contents, we are heavily committed to promote, encourage a more sustainable and inclusive society. It is through the channel Ushuaïa, which is preserving, of course, the environment. Our news team has put together with Expertes à la Une. It means addressing women in society, in the corporate or in the institutional world, giving them the possibility by coaching and sponsoring them from even our anchor people like Anne-Claire Coudray or Gilles Bouleau sponsoring individually 15 women to give them the possibility of expressing themselves on television at ease and giving them confidence by coaching them. Newen is heavily committed on having eco-production in all their production and particularly having a test lab with Plus belle la vie, which is one of the production they do on a daily basis for France Télévisions. MyTF1 online content. We have an enlarged business model relying on solid brands and strong reach. We were happy to see that all the work which has been done on MyTF1 is now becoming a reality and getting a lot of credit. We posted an increase of 21%. Of course, very strong boost thanks to the good performance of some programs like HPI, "La Promesse," or "Koh-Lanta." Meaning by that we are also very strong ad revenue as advertisers see, of course, the interest of having a mix between linear, nonlinear television, and going digital with MyTF1. We are posting +52% on 2020, which is really very encouraging. On the online reach, of course, Marmiton, Doctissimo keep delivering very strong numbers at the end of the semester. Of course, more and more, we are encouraging editorial collaboration between, for example, our access primetime daily soap, "Ici tout commence," which is in a cooking school with a program like Marmiton. Moving to Newen Studios. It's all about expansion and growth. Here, we wanted to emphasize the fact that we have been able to seize some opportunities in very dynamic markets. I mentioned already the A&E shareholding into Reel One, which we do believe is a very strong plus for the future. Of course, taking a solid position in the Spanish-speaking world, as you know since "La Casa de Papel" and what Netflix has been doing in Spain, I think everybody has become aware of the potential of Spanish production houses. We wanted to set foot in Spain, and it is done through iZen and through Kubik Films. We are very excited about this association. At the end of the day, it means that international revenues represent already 40% of the total of Newen. Meaning, knowing that in France, we have also part of the sales team, which makes the French revenues a little bit higher, but our goal is to go 50-50 between international and France. Of course, the name of the game looking forward is partnering with platforms on high-value added formats. We see new opportunities in France, in the U.K., Spain, and Belgium. In the U.K. with Ringside Studios and Gub Neal, who came from Endemol, in association with a French producer, Leonis Productions. We were able to convince Apple TV+ to give to Newen the first production that they are doing in Europe between France and England, called "Liaison" with Vincent Cassel and Eva Green. It will be a very high profile. It's a miniseries. We do believe that it's a very significant move for Newen in the international scene as a major producer. With Netflix, two significant projects. One through our Dutch-speaking Belgium studio, De Mensen with "Rough Diamonds," which will be all about what is going on in the diamond world in Antwerp, and a very nice series, which is an eight-part crime drama, which will be launched on Netflix. Then "Insiders," which is iZen, so the Spanish new entity obtaining this reality show in kind of a "Big Brother" style. This is what's going on on this first half of the year through our various activities, and I will now give the floor to Philippe for the financial results. Thank you, Gilles. I will start by giving a few more explanations regarding our presentation for which you have a detailed description on the slide and on our website as well. As Gilles has already explained, this new organization reflects growing synergies between television and digital activities. Our TV and digital business today operate in a converging market. On the commercial side, we have developed combined offers for our advertisers, which for most part of them, are the same between our channel and our website. Market measures and sales are also gradually converging. In addition, I would say that data offers for TV spots are a good example of technological cooperation between our two businesses. In terms of content, we see a lot of potential to share our programs and maximize traffic as it has already been the case between Marmiton and TF1 with Ici tout commence or Doctissimo and TF1 on this specific segment. By combining our TV and digital business into a new media sector, we thus make way to create even more value and more synergies for our clients. Other reallocation of business to better reflect internal touchpoint and governance, music and entertainment activities are also integrated in the media sector. As a result, Newen Studios' performance will be made more visible. Since 2016, we have developed our production and distribution business segment, namely through acquisition of studio abroad. Today, this business is present in 7 countries and shows a lot of potential, both from a synergetic point of view as our different studios are working together more and more and cooperate, but also from a business point of view with a growing partnership with SVOD platform. Our new sector presentation will help better reflect this. Especially, from this semester onwards, all figures will be presented according to those 2 sectors. The first one, media, will include revenues from our TV and digital business. For this segment, digital and ad revenues will be identified within total advertising revenues. Other revenues will include revenues from services, distribution, music, events, licensing, and social e-commerce. For the second one, Newen Studios, we will provide detailed figures for France and international revenues. As a way to facilitate your analysis, 2020 pro forma data will be provided in our 2021 financial statements. Now, moving to our results. I will start commenting on the H1 2021 revenues for the TF1 Group. Consolidated revenues of TF1 Group stand at EUR 1,128.7 million, up by EUR 245 million year-over-year, close to the level of '19. Revenues for the media segment are up by EUR 198 million year-over-year. This reflects a 30.5% increase in advertising revenues. That's to say EUR 187.4 million year-over-year. This figure benefits from a favorable basis of comparison versus last year, which was marked by the impact of the first lockdown. Some sectors such as leisure, culture or clothing have come back. They even increased their spending versus '19. Digital ad revenues are up by EUR 10.4 million due to increased revenues from the replay platform MyTF1, which delivered a very good performance, as Gilles has already explained during this first half year. Website ad revenues are slightly down versus last year due to limited performance on our international business. Ad revenues are up on the French market. The other revenues within the media segment are up by EUR 11 million year-on-year. This comes from a better activity versus last year in advertising services such as Icone and Gamned!, as well as growing revenues from our e-commerce offers. Interactivity is flat with a high basis of comparison last year in the context of lockdown. Moving on to Newen Studios. Revenues are up by EUR 46.9 million year-on-year. During the first half year 2020, activity was impacted, as you remember, by the interruption of shooting. Newen Studios activity benefit this semester from a favorable basis of comparison and higher deliveries. International revenues stand at EUR 56.5 million, up by 54% versus last year. In the context of growing revenues, Newen international activities has stood up its share of 40% of total revenues of this segment. Regarding programming costs for H1 2021, they amounted to EUR 466 million versus EUR 355 in H1 2020. They are up by EUR 111 million versus last year. As we had the opportunity to express before, we have started investing again in H1 2021 in order to increase our ratings and create value for our advertisers. Programming costs are thus back to 2019 level when they stood at close to EUR 460 million. To give you more details, we broadcasted some French soccer team games in H1, as well as the UEFA EURO 2020, for a total cost of EUR 40 million, compared to no significant sport cost last year when competitions were postponed due to the COVID-19. In order to benefit from the demand on the ad market, to increase our rating, we've also invested in French series in H1, such as HPI, Remplaçant, Je te promets, and this led to a cost increase of EUR 15 million versus last year, some of which comes from higher depreciation in line with more deliveries versus last year, and even more delivery compared to what we normally have during the six first months of a year. Current operating profit amount to EUR 169 million, up by EUR 101 million, leading to a margin rate of 15%, showing the group ability to bounce back from the COVID-19 crisis. It is in line with the H1 2019 level of profitability. If we now look into the different segments, the current operating profit for the media segment stands at EUR 147 million, up by EUR 76.6 million year-on-year, leading to a current operating margin rate of 15%. The margin rate is up by 6 points versus last year. The current operating profit for the media segment takes into account EUR 21 million amount of one-off tax benefits, but which has the counterpart in our P&L for an amount of amortization and depreciation as already mentioned, which is higher than normally. There we have more than EUR 50 million increase compared to last year or even 2019 on a one-off level of delivery of French drama during those 6 months, since we kept investing last year in production in 2020. Newen Studios posted a current operating profit of EUR 21.7 million, up by EUR 24.7 million year-on-year, and a current operating margin rate of 15%, which reflects the resumption of Newen activity after the interruption of shooting during H1 last year. On the consolidated income statement, I've already commented on the consolidated revenues and the cost of programs and the current operating profit per segment. Other charges, depreciation, amortization, and provision are up by EUR 33 million in H1, explained by non-current savings on general expenses due to COVID-19 last year, and a high level of depreciation amortization as already explained. Non-recurrent expenses linked with the TF1-M6 merger project are recognized in our accounts for an amount of EUR 2.4 million for this first half year. Share of losses of associates stands at EUR 13.4 million, down by EUR 12 million, explained by the investment in the Salto platform. The net profit attributable to the group stands positive at EUR 108 million for H1 2021, up by EUR 70 million, in line with the increase of the revenues and the current operating profits. On the balance sheet, nothing very special to comment. At the group level at the end of June 2021, shareholders' equity attributable to the group was EUR 1.626 billion at end of June 2021, out of a balance sheet total of EUR 3.540 billion. The group reported a net cash positive of EUR 34 million at end of June 2021. As you know, the group has a sound financial position with low debt and access to available bilateral credit facilities around EUR 1 billion. If we look at the trend in the cash position during this half year. Closing net debt stand as already mentioned, EUR 34 million at end of June. The operating cash flow is up by EUR 300 million, which reflects the improvement of our business and our results in H1 2021 compared to H1 2020. The negative figure of EUR 63 million in our change in operating working capital is mainly linked with the increase in trade receivable due to a higher level of activity and higher inventories in the Newen Studios segment. The level of net capital expenditure is up by EUR 8 million, explained mainly by higher investment in Newen linked with the increase in the activity in H1 as usual, and the development of the productions. The level of Salto shareholders' loans and dividends is down by EUR 66.7 million, mainly linked to the 2020 dividends payment of EUR 94 million, EUR 95 million and the reduction of shareholder loans level. I will pass the floor to Gilles, who will give more flavor on the 2021 full year perspective. Thank you, Philippe. Yeah. Following these very good and strong results from the 1st half, we believe that, especially for the last quarter, the best remains to come. We have a very powerful back-to-school lineup, both in fiction and entertainment. Starting with entertainment, we will have a very special end of the year with The Voice, with an all-star casting. Should generate a lot of interest. Koh-Lanta, with the legend, where we brought back some of the participants, the best ones for over the last 20 participations. Mask Singer will come back after 2 years not being on the screen. Danse avec les stars will be back, and then we will celebrate also the 20 years of Star Academy through a couple of primetimes. This will be combined with a very strong lineup in term of societal and contemporary fiction. It is very important for us, as you know, to feature issues. Not only comedies, and you have a couple of comedies here, like "Laurent Plasson," which is a professor, fairly cranky to replacing for a while, a full professor in a gymnasium and creating a lot of problem with JoeyStarr, which is one of a major actor in that kind of range. Very interesting proposition. The first unit was very well accepted. We are coming back with some new additions. "Belle, belle" will be also the French adaptation of a U.S. comedy, "I Feel Pretty," which we expect a lot. Some more societal commitments. One is "Il est elle," which is about a drama about the story of a young boy who feels like a girl in a male body, and the evolution during his teenage years, and, of course, how his parents may react to his announcement and to his willingness to change sex. We are trying to feature those issues on new territories. It has been very successful in the past, and we do believe that that's one way of maintaining our leadership. On the all-news channel, LCI, as we saw that CNews was, of course, progressing in France throughout the year 2020 and 2021. Necessity to revamp LCI with a new dynamic. We reinforced the programming structure. We have new morning show. We will have a new access and primetime show with new journalists coming from BFM, from various parts of the television spectrum. New visual identity, new studio. All combined, I think we will be ready for the presidential race, which, of course, will officially start. It has already a little bit started with a few announcements, but we want to be part of that game and be a major player in it. Of course, this starts as early as September 2021. A revamping of the first soap that we put in access prime time, Demain nous appartient, already 4 years ago. With new sets, new characters, new cast, a new theme song with Vianney, who is a young French singer, well known to the younger public. I think all in all, here, too, we will capitalize on the success of Ici tout commence, which is the second soap that we introduced 2 years ago. Give a new dynamic to "Demain nous appartient." In terms of growth perspective, looking forward. On the media side, it's all about strengthening our total video approach, both in content and, of course, marketing with a lot of offers in terms of streaming. Developing synergies and creating value, as you saw, between the linear and the digital activities, and capitalizing on unique content like the fiction I mentioned. You see a few of them, "Mensonges," "Une affaire française," which has a movie casting which will be an eight-episode story, which will be presented in September or October. Then some feature movies like "Le Grand Bain." Newen Studios with, of course, an increasing share coming from international players, clients, platforms, and significant increase of the book counters of the clients. With that, what we wanted, of course, to commit to with Philippe and the team was that in 2021, following the 15% margin on the first half, committing to having, of course, a double-digit current operating profit margin for the entire year, which is coming back to 2019 level where we had made. It has taken a few years to bring back TF1 at that level. Finally, one word on the proposed merger. As you know, we are in the middle of it now, initiating the process once the announcement was made. The ambition is very much at the top to make the process happen and a successful one. The whole idea of this being that the new media group is ready to master the challenges of the total video market, benefiting to all viewers, and especially the French audiovisual industry. We just signed a major agreement at the TF1 Group with the French producers in movies. This is capitalizing on our knowledge of the industry and the good relationship we have with them. Strong commitment to creativity, diversity, pluralism of opinion regarding, of course, a new theme promoting French and European culture, which we think is important given the legacy that we have in the French history. A French streaming champion combining, of course, catch-up, and you have seen that with MyTF1, but of course, display is very strong on the M6 side, and live streaming offer and SVOD offer. The closing is expected, as we had announced earlier, at the end of 2022. It's a very long process, unfortunately, but that's the way it's done in France, and there is nothing we can do about it. Of course, it is just our collaboration with the French authorities, such as the antitrust authorities and the CSA, which will allow the process to take place in the best possible situation. Of course, the good news was that on July 8th, both Bouygues and RTL, the two major shareholders, were able to announce the signing of the agreement after the approval of our mutual employee representative bodies, whether it was at Bouygues or TF1 or M6. This being said, I think we are ready now to answer your questions. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. If you wish to ask a question, please press the code 01 on your telephone keypad, and you will enter the queue. We have a first question from Annick Maas from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Good morning. First of all, it would be great if we could get a bit more detail around the TV advertising performance in July, August, and what you know so far. Secondly, you suggested that H1 in studios performed, among others, quite well because of early deliveries. Do we assume from that that maybe H2 might be slightly weaker? You gave this slide where you showed which sectors have recovered. I'd be quite keen to see what share of your advertisers is now made up by e-commerce firms. Finally, you suggested that in addressable TV, it's mostly local advertisers that have used the function so far. First of all, can you maybe tell us a bit more about these advertisers? Also, do you have any stats or return on investment, KPIs to show us how addressable TV has delivered so far? Thank you. The first question on July and August. These are small months for us. We see, because we are at the end of it, a good month of July. The month of August, where the comparable is a little bit stronger because we had a strong month of last year in August for a lot of reasons. Also in a good trend. Less visibility, of course, on September. As we see the economy coming back, and as I mentioned earlier, most announcers coming back, especially the consumer goods announcers, we feel fairly confident on the end of the year. The second question was? The studio performance in H2. You want to comment? Well, I would say that in H1, we had a very good performance, but that should go on in H2. Activity for the studio segment is good, and the demand is quite strong. We have a level of book of order which stands at a high level, 1,500 hours for the book of orders. We expect this performance to go on for the whole year. Regarding your third questions, I think that the pure player, as we call them, advertising clients, represent around 10% of the total revenues, basically. They are up for the last 18 months in terms of what they invest. I think that we had another question. It was on addressable TV, I guess. If I understood well, your question was about knowing more about the local advertising. It's very early in the game. We have about 16 campaigns, I think, which have been put together. Leboncoin is, of course, enabling us. It hasn't started yet, so it will enable us to accelerate. We see both national announcers wanted to test it and then local advertisers going for it because it enables you to create regional advertisements, more targeted by definition advertisements. As we see more and more with Orange as a distributor and with Bouygues Telecom coming on board, I think we will know more in a few months. At this stage, it's very early. Regarding your question in terms of sectors which recover as compared to Q1, I would say that during Q2, we had specifically, of course, culture and leisures. Those two sectors are coming back, which is good news, even limited. Nevertheless, they were still affected in Q1, and we see them in Q2, as well as all the clothing textile sector, which is back, which is as well improving as compared to Q1. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. We have a next question from Conor O'Shea from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead. Yes. Thank you for taking my questions. Good morning, everybody. Yeah, 3 questions. Maybe if you just come back on the previous question on the third quarter. I think last third quarter, you did more than 8% advertising growth. Just could you remind us roughly how that 8% was apportioned between, say, July, August, September? Was there a big step up in growth in September, which would make this year's comp in September much more difficult? The 2nd question is on programming costs. Just Philippe, if you could have some thoughts about full year programming costs now that we're halfway through the year, what your latest thoughts there are. Just the last question on Salto. Do you just have any chance of having a few more KPIs of how it's going in terms of traction with subscribers and so on, and what your sort of thoughts are 6 or 9 months into after launch? Thank you. Well, regarding your first question, last year, the 8.5% growth was more on August and September. August always never was very important, but in terms of percentage, that was more end of the quarter than beginning of the quarter because of comparison. Concerning the programming cost, I would say that you may be a bit disappointed, linked with the programming cost level of H1. I just want to remind you and insist on the fact that is mainly due to the fact that we had more deliveries than normally we have at the end of H1, and that create in our programming cost, mainly due to French drama and the high level of French drama we have in our inventories and rights, and of course, broadcasting more French drama than others. I would say that is mainly due to amortization and depreciation. Programming costs are under control. It's due to a very one-off situation. As we have already mentioned, we should deliver a global programming cost between EUR 900 and EUR 985, with an average will probably be, depending on the high demand on advertising during both the year and especially during the last four months of the year. We'll adjust our investment September, October, and November depending on the demand and the necessity to increase inventories and good ratings when the demand on the advertising market will be there. We will adjust depending on the situation the last three, four months of the year, but we remain with the same kind of control on programming cost and take into account the one-off situation due to the fact that we have invested in Euro 2020 even during the crisis in order to support the sector, and especially for the French drama. We have the consequence on the P&L during H1. On Salto. On Salto, what we may say is maybe that we are well on track with the, what I guess as a shareholder, we expected from Salto playing this role of a platform offering our content in a premiere situation, which meaning that when we see "HPI" or "La Promesse" or other French fiction that we are proposing to the public, you will have it 30 days in advance of the broadcast on TF1. This is a terrific offer, very different, of course, from any of the American platforms. This means a lot to us as it means additional acquisition possibilities and rights. When we look now at the full value of acquiring an IP. Being able to allocate some of the value to Salto. I think the 3 shareholders are very much on that line. The duration of viewership is very much in line, over 2 hours per subscribers with what the international platforms are doing. Little by little, we are looking at the expansion of Salto, the distribution, et cetera. We will let Salto communicate rather than us on whatever has not been communicated. Okay. Understood. Thank you. Thank you. We have a following question from Christophe Cherblanc from Societe Generale. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. 3 questions on my side. First was on advertising. What was the mix between volume and pricing in H1 and Q2? You have indicated that TV viewing time was up, I think 7%-8%, so that seems to suggest it was mostly volume. Related to that, what do you expect post the pandemic in terms of TV viewing time? Does that mean that as volume go down and eyeballs go down, you will have to raise prices, and do you think you are in a position to do that? The second one was on the state aid. I just want to make sure I understand the mechanic. The EUR 21 million is booked as other income, and that's totally offsetting a depreciation which is in programming cost, if I understand correctly, but I just wanted to confirm. Is there more to come in H2? Lastly, is it tax-free? Is the state taxing its aid? The last one was on, Philippe has answered that, but I want to make sure I understand. On Newen margin, 15% was very good in H1. Is that a sustainable level for the full year and for the next few years? Thank you. Well, on the first question, during H1, we have recaptured some value, in terms of pricing and mix, with a strong performance, and high level of ratings, which give us opportunity to sell on spot by spot and at a level of pricing, which is linked with the good ratings and especially on prime time. In terms of volume price, I would say that in Q2, and especially in Q2, we have been in capacity because of the rating and high level of ratings, to a better price than usual. We recapture some value in Q2. Concerning the state tax benefit, I would say that we are not saying that EUR 21 million is completely or put a counterpart of the amortization level. Just to give sense, we had benefit from a tax credit, which is tax-free, which is based on the fact that we had a loss in our revenues of more than 10% last year. As you know, the decision and the decree finally came out in April this year, even if it has been discussed during the whole 2020 year. I'm just saying that the counterpart of it is the fact that we have supported the sector in 2020, and as a consequence, having invested in 2020, we have deliveries this year, which has some impact on amortization and depreciation. The level of amortization and depreciation in Q2 as compared to last year, is around EUR 50 million, if you take our P&L in detail. Basically, it's not really a compensation. At the end, we benefit from the programs. In terms of comparation, I'm just saying that is the balance with the benefit of this tax we have. The benefit of this tax is taken accordingly to what we broadcast in terms of content, according to the rules. There will be an additional amount, but very limited during the second half of the year because we have not completely broadcasted on what we have invested last year. There will be an additional amount for a limited few millions EUR in H2. Regarding your question of 15% sustainability, in terms of you know very well TF1 for long, and you know that usually and historically, Q3 was loss-making. We've made some change during the last few years. Now we are still profitable, even if the margin in Q3 is limited because of the nature of the business and because of the limited amount and limited demand in July and August during summer. We probably will be more in line with what we have delivered in 2019 in terms of profitability than what we have delivered during H1, which is traditional for TF1 for the last few years. Now, in terms of sustainability on the long term, I will not comment on it. I would say that what we have is in mind is that to remain now onwards with a double-digit profitability, not only 2021, but onwards. My last question was actually just specifically on Newen, which had a 15% margin, so that was on Newen. I think you did not answer on the pre-pandemic normalization of audiences to pre-pandemic level. If and when that happens, volume will go down. Will you have to raise prices as of, I don't know, 2022 or 2023? Do you think that you are in a position to do that? Well, regarding Newen profitability, 15% is a high level of profitability for a production company. I think we are more between 10 to 15. Nevertheless, we expect to keep a high level of profitability due to the level of demand in this sector. 15% profitability for this activity is probably a higher level we can expect in a normative basis. Maybe on the pricing, I think the beauty of our current system is that we have a dynamic pricing, which is very much a yield management pricing scheme. Meaning by that even if we have some guaranteed commitment from advertisers, some major advertisers at the beginning of the year, giving them some specific prices. We are able to monitor those prices during the year, based on demand. It is a very dynamic and evolutive pricing throughout the year. Regarding, it is a balance not only between viewing the duration of viewership, but it's most importantly what ratings we deliver. As long as we are very much into this dynamic of delivering very strong ratings on entertainment, on fiction, on news, I think, we have the possibility of keeping that dynamic and this yield management going on for the coming quarters. Just to add, I think that we have to leverage not only or specifically increasing price, but we have to leverage in order to take into account the viewing and the level absolute value of ratings. First is to mix the part of the day and to be very strong on access and prime time and to deliver valuable inventories, which are sold at a price which is, of course, higher than the part of the day at normal day part. Meaning that we may, and we have the possibility to leverage value through the ratings specifically on specific part of the day. Second point is that as we have improved the way we sell our inventories between what we call spot by spot and ratings guarantee. That's also on TF1, a way to leverage the value for our advertisers as a counterpart of a pricing which could be up, but which create more value because of the nature of the inventories. Thank you. Thank you. We have a next question from Thomas Coudry from Bryan, Garnier. Please go ahead. Apologies, Mr. Coudry just hung up. For the moment, we have no other questions. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you wish to ask a question, please dial 01 on your telephone keypad. Thank you. Okay. Well, if there is no more question. Wish you- wish you a very good summer. Good summer. Holidays. If you need any specific useful question information, the team is available. Well, thank you for attending this call. Thank you. Thank you again, and have a good summer. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's web conference. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.