Good day, welcome to today's TF1 H1 2023 results. Today's conference is recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of TF1 Group, and Pierre-Alain Gérard, VP Finance, Strategy, and Procurement. Please go ahead, sir.
Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this conference call presenting our H1 results for 2023. I'm Rodolphe Belmer, presenting today alongside with our group CFO, Pierre-Alain Gérard. During today's call, I will present the business highlights of our two operating segments. I will hand it over to Pierre-Alain, who will provide a more detailed breakdown of our financial results. Lastly, we'll discuss our strategy, and then we'll take our questions. For those of you who are joining us by phone, please note that we are displaying a presentation which you can follow through the webcast. You can also find the presentation on our corporate website. With that, let's start the presentation. First, group key performance metrics. Starting with the audience. In H1 2023, TF1 Group further consolidated its leadership position by increasing its audience share, both in the linear and nonlinear forms.
In digital, MYTF1 streaming platform experienced a significant increase in viewership, reaching an all-time high of 30.6 million streamers in May. This is truly an encouraging performance as it confirms, once again, the effectiveness of our content offering in both segments, linear and non-linear. Second, MYTF1's strong advertising revenue momentum is another piece of evidence of its promising proposition. At the end of June 2023, it amounted to EUR 46.3 million, up 12.8% year-on-year. Third, key highlights of the period, programming costs. We remain agile on programming costs, which enabled us to broadly offset the overall decline in advertising revenues. We reached a high current operating margin from activities of 16.2% in H1 and 21.6% in Q2, up +4.4 points versus 2022.
As said before, with no negative impact on our audience performance. In the backdrop of the economic uncertainties and the context of our digital acceleration, the group has launched a cost optimization plan aiming at gradually reaching over EUR 40 million of operational savings from 2025 onwards, out of which between EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million will be reinvested into our digital acceleration. Lastly, TF1 Group generated a free cash flow of EUR 155 million, up EUR 34 million year-on-year, and reached a net cash position of EUR 365 million, representing an increase of EUR 39 million versus end December 2022. Business highlights of our two operating segments, media and Newen Studios. In the first half of 2023, TF1 maintained its leadership across all social demographic segments and made significant progress on commercial targets.
In particular, TF1 channel achieved a solid audience share of 22.9% among women below 50, up 0.6 points year-on-year, representing a record gap with its closest competitor during the first semester. Individuals aged 25- 49, our second commercial target, the channel recorded a strong 99.9% audience share, up also 4.2 points year-on-year. DTT Channels, LCI, our news channel, achieved a solid audience share of 2.0% among individuals aged 4+, up 0.4 points versus last year. It is also up on the 25- 49 year group target, plus 0.2 points year-on-year. Reach now. TF1 Reach is the key underpinning factor of the value we deliver to our customers.
On a daily basis, the overall television market had a reach which remains at a high level in H1 at 75%, demonstrating television major competitive advantage on other propositions. Within the French media landscape, TF1 Group stands out with a daily reach of 52%, higher than any other media, including Facebook and YouTube. The group reaches every week, nearly as much as 50 million French people, an increase of almost 6% since 2019. All in all, we have maintained this reach thanks to our unique program lineup, built around ambitious regular events on TF1 and a distinctive complementary offer on our DTT channels. Our strong lineup of events programming is the key underpinning backbone of our audience leadership.
During the first semester, the flagship channel recorded the 50 best ratings among women below 50, and the 49 best ratings among the 25-49 age group. Thanks to a unique and differentiating programming offer across all genres. Notably, French drama with the season three of HPI, which achieved 6th out of the 10 best ratings of the semester, and averaged a huge 9.1 million viewers every week. Entertainment with a successful Koh-Lanta franchise, which recorded up to 5.4 million viewers. News, in an environment marked with international, significant international and national news events, including the presidential public address, watched by 6.2 million viewers. Sports, with the matches of the French national football team, attracting up to 8.1 million viewers for the Euro qualifiers. Nonlinear activities now.
In the H1 of 2023, TF1 Group kept on developing its MYTF1 platform, with the objective of becoming the first French free-to-view streaming platform, streaming as opposed to a simple catch-up service. During this period, MYTF1 proved the attractiveness on TF1 linear content in a non-linear context. In terms of key indicators, MYTF1 advertising revenues amounted to EUR 46.3 million over the semester, up 13% year-on-year, strongly outperforming the market according to our estimates. In H1 2023, the platform attracted an average of 27.8 million streamers every month, with a historical record of 30.6 million streamers in May, during the month of May.
We also outperformed the market in terms of streamed hours, number of hours streamed on our service, with 542 million hours streamed over the semester, notably a record of 107 million hours in May. In that month, we had a weight of 41% of the market, meaning far above all competitors. As said before, TF1 Group linear content works very well on MYTF1. Some illustrations, more than 30% of the 25-49 age group such as HPI, Ici tout commence, and Koh-Lanta. 25-30%, sorry, of the viewership of the 25-49 age group is now done in a non-linear form. 30%, it's a big number, big incremental number.
The HPI franchise holds the record for the number of streamers during the period, attracting 2 million additional viewers on MYTF1. Turning to the optimization plan now. As announced during the full year 2022 call, on the occasion of the Q1 results, we are optimizing our cost base to finance our digital acceleration program in a deteriorated economic context. In total, we target from 2025 onwards, more than EUR 40 million in savings of operational costs in real estate, IT, procurement, and organization costs, of course. Out of those savings, a portion of EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million will be reinvested in our digital plan, covering mostly tech, specifically dedicated to this acceleration program and HR, in order to acquire or to integrate the new skills we need to perform that digital acceleration.
Moving on to the production segment, the Newen Studios. The first semester was marked by a depressed demand from broadcasters in a context of advertising decrease, and from platforms that have been reviewing their growth strategy, that have been overhauling their growth strategy. Moreover, the 2022 comparison basis is high, given the delivery of important piece of content, like Funeral for a Dog, for Sky Deutschland in the first quarter of 2022, as well as the discontinuation of the program, the soap opera, Plus belle la vie, done for France Télévisions, and some productions for Salto. Looking ahead, Newen Studios is drawing on the diversity of its talent pool to develop new projects and strong partnerships with customers, demonstrated by the renewal of the premium program, Marie Antoinette, for a second season, which will be delivered in 2024.
The reboot of Plus belle la vie on TF1 and MYTF1 in 2024, illustrates Newen Studios credibility and strong expertise in daily soap operas, and also the ability of Newen Studios and TF1 to generate strong synergies. With that, now to Pierre-Alain.
Thank you, Rodolphe. Good evening, everyone. I provide a detailed breakdown of our financial results for our two operating segments. Note that you will find the management report and the financial statements appendix on our website. Let's turn to page 11 to discuss the group's revenue. In H1, consolidated revenue for TF1 amounted to EUR 1,038 million, down EUR 107 million or 9.5%, excluding scope effects. Revenue for the media segment reached EUR 904 million, down EUR 124 million compared to the same period last year. 50% of the revenue impact is linked to a scope effect resulting from the Unify disposals, affecting both the advertising and non-advertising side. Advertising revenue for the first half amounted to EUR 746 million, down EUR 48 million, or 6% without scope effects.
The decline is mostly due to the inflationary macroeconomic context, impacting investments decision from our advertising clients across most sectors. The trend improved over the first half. Q1 was down 7%, Q2 down 5%, which, according to our estimates, is better than the market evolution and allowed us to gain market share. Within the advertising revenue, MYTF1 continues to deliver solid advertising growth with a 13% increase year-on-year, which is also beating the market, according to our estimates. Non-advertising media revenue amounted to EUR 158 million, down EUR 55 million, of which EUR 40 million are linked to the disposals of Gamned and Ykone in 2022. The rest of the decline is mostly due to the absence of sale of rights to Salto in creating an unfavorable basis of comparison.
In H1, 2023, Newen Studios posted a revenue of EUR 134 million, a decline of EUR 25 million, due to a high basis of comparison, notably with the discontinuation of Plus belle la vie for France Télévisions, and the delivery of Funeral for a Dog for Sky Deutschland in Q1, 2022, and obviously, the absence of activity with Salto. The impact of Plus belle la vie is broadly compensated by the acquisition closed last year by Newen, including iZen subsidiaries and Anagram. Moving on to the current operating profit from activities. The group posted current operating profit from activities of EUR 152 million, down EUR 40 million year-on-year. Thanks to a more dynamic Q2 and beating our company compiled consensus.
By segment, operating performance is the following one: COPA for the media sector was EUR 146 million, generating a margin exceeding 16%, down only 0.6%, despite the advertising headwinds caused by market uncertainties. On top of this, the media margin in Q2 was at 0.4%, at 21.6%. Almost 75% of the decline in advertising revenue on a constant basis, has been mitigated by the decrease in cost of programs. Once again, as Rodolphe said, the group has demonstrated its ability to control its cost while improving its audience share on commercial targets. Let's break down the EUR 26 million decrease in COPA for media. As previously disclosed in Q1, EUR 9 million originates from the proceeds of the Molotov settlement, including in our operating income in H1, 2022.
Some of the decrease is also linked to the advertising revenue decline, the part which is not covered by the reduction in programming costs. Finally, same as in Q1, the rest is mostly due to one-off tech costs linked to our digital acceleration plan and some non-recurring HR costs. As for Newen Studios, COPA reached EUR 6 million for the first half, including EUR 8 million COPA in Q2, resulting in a double-digit margin of 10.3%. If I move to the consolidated income statement, let's move directly to the operating profit. In H1, it amounted to EUR 131 million, including EUR 19 million of non-recurring items linked with the optimization of the group's real estate and the strengthening of the existing employment and professional development management system to support the group's digital acceleration.
As Rodolphe mentioned earlier, we are currently launching an optimization plan for which we incur some implementation costs. This plan aims at gradually achieving more than EUR 40 million in operational cost savings from 2025 onwards. Of the EUR 40 million, EUR 10 million-EUR 15 million will be reinvested in the group's digital acceleration. These cost savings will mostly cover real estate, IT, procurement, and organization, and the reinvestment will address new tech and HR needs. Our net income for H1 2023 was EUR 101 million, down EUR 25 million. Let's now take a look at the evolution of our net cash position. TF1 Group posted a net cash position of EUR 365 million at the end of June 2023, compared with a net cash position of EUR 326 million at the end of December 2022.
Our free cash flow of EUR 155 million, up EUR 40 million versus last year, was made of the following: operating cash flow amounted to EUR 228 million, down EUR 60 million year-on-year because of the decline of the activity on both segments. Working Cap held well in H1, with a cash inflow of EUR 63 million. Benefiting from the cash collected from the FIFA World Cup in 2022, at the beginning of this year. CapEx were slightly down year-on-year, mostly related to the evolution of activity at Newen. The EUR 113 million outflow of others, mostly include the dividend payment of EUR 105 million, and dividends paid by the subsidiaries of Newen to minority shareholders. This concludes our financial review. Thank you very much. I'll now hand it back to Rodolphe to discuss the outlook.
Now let's have a look at the perspectives and the targets for the rest of the year. The second half of 2023 will be marked by a strong lineup of programs, with the return of powerful brands and serialized general entertainment programs such as Star Academy or Les Bracelets Rouges. Before that, of course, TF1 will broadcast the key matches of the upcoming major events for the French audience, the Rugby World Cup in France, which will undoubtedly be a nice springboard for our audience and market share into the last part of the year. In order to leverage also that event for a non-linear expansion, we have developed new features, the Top Chrono innovation on MYTF1, which will propose on-demand video summaries of rugby matches, and our exclusive partnership with Meta, and the launch of a dedicated Instagram channel.
TF1 is the first player in France to inaugurate the Instagram broadcast channel feature, offering rugby fans the chance to follow all the news and the behind-the-scenes coverage of the competition, with a regular stream of content throughout the event. These initiatives will strengthen our activity towards our advertisers and streamers. As explained during the fiscal year 2022 results presentation, our roadmap is composed of three strategic pillars. First, as we have always done, we will focus on maximizing the value generated by our linear advertising inventories. We believe linear will remain a very solid line of business in the future, since the reach we produce becomes increasingly differentiated, thanks to our very strong and superior programming lineup. In addition, this will enable us to develop our distinctive value for our customers and our pricing flexibility. Second, we will accelerate our expansion in digital.
Our goal is to establish ourselves as the first free-to-view streaming service in the French market. We are confident in our efforts to develop our digital activity by mostly leveraging our strong linear content and franchises, which have proven to be highly suited to non-linear consumption. With our digital expansion, we will strive to maximize the value of our digital inventory by strengthening our data collection strategy. Third, we'll continue to grow our studio business momentum, mostly through organic growth. Moving forward, the whole group is highly engaged in delivering its strategic roadmap and in accelerating its digital expansion. TF1 is maintaining its outlook with different dynamics within its business. In the media segment, we will further consolidate our linear leadership and accelerate in digital.
After a 2022 year marked by a large number of deliveries, Newen Studios will draw on the diversity of its talents in 2023, to develop new projects that will drive growth in the years to come. The group is committed to deliver a broadly stable COPA profit margin versus 2022, is focused on cash flow generation to aim at a growing or stable dividend policy. The first half of 2023 was characterized by a challenging environment, We still managed to deliver on our strategic roadmap while maintaining a strong financial position. We are very confident in the resilience of TF1 near-term performance near-term performance and its midterm substantial value creation potential. We look forward to reporting on our progress. Thank you for your attention.
This concludes our presentation, and we are now ready to take on your questions.
Thank you, sir. A reminder to the participants, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, press star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone the opportunity to signal for question. It appears that there is no question at this time. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to turn the conference back to you for any additional or closing remark.
Well, maybe, I'll do some closing remarks to reiterate that in a difficult market context in the first half semester, TF1 Group has delivered a solid set of figures with an evolution in revenues, which we, which we, think, outperforms the market, and with displaying an agility in programming costs, which enabled us to deliver on our profit margin.
On the outlook going forward, we deem that the market will normalize throughout the second semester, with a market share for TF1 that should be strong due to our strong lineup of content, starting with the Rugby World Cup at the very beginning of December, which enables us to fully reiterate our guidance for the full year. Thank you very much for your attention, and talk to you in a quarter now for our third quarter set of results. Thank you very much.
That concludes today's event. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.