Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I wanted to start with a quick anecdote. The other day, I met one of our TV hosts and one of our big stars on a Friday morning at the airport. We were grabbing a coffee, and as we were chatting, he told me that he and his son were just watching "The Masked Singer" the evening before. Then because his son isn't very old, when it was time for him to go to bed, his son asked whether he couldn't finish watching "The Masked Singer" on Joyn. I really got a kick out of this for two reasons. One, I think it shows that entertainment is relevant across all audiences, and that with Joyn, we're extending those audiences from TV to digital in a very meaningful way. I'll talk about that more later.
Now, if you go to slide five, I wanted to start off and remind you of the strategic priorities that we set out last fall and that we have been consistently focused on and executing. Number one, to build a future-fit entertainment and commerce champion. Importantly, return to and accelerate organic growth while investing for total shareholder return. Two, focus on local content, make that content more live, more local, more relevant, and win back bigger audiences. Three, reach large audiences across all channels by building out our digital footprint, both through own and third-party platforms. Four, turn that reach into more money, particularly focused on creating more addressable inventory. Five, drive content production by expanding our synergistic local footprint and scale up Studio71, our digital outfit globally.
6, on NuCom to build our synergistic commerce portfolio by serving large consumer needs with a focused portfolio and building market leaders across all 4 verticals. How are we doing? Well, we've been very focused on executing across all of those priorities, and I think we're seeing good progress across all of them, though, of course, it's a journey, and we're working hard every single day. Let me cover the 6 points. On growth, we're seeing group revenue growth of 4% both for the second quarter and for the first half. By the way, that compares to about an average of minus 4% for our European peers. While certainly we would want more in the future, we think that puts us well on track in delivering growth and acceleration.
Two, on local content, we are seeing the best TV audience shares in June, in Q2, in the first half, and importantly, total video view time was up for the first time in the second quarter. Total video view time measures all minutes of all content we put out on all channels, whether they be TV and digital. That's a really, really important metric because what it really means is that we are beginning to compensate and overcompensate with digital viewing the declines in linear viewing. By the way, that is before we have launched Joyn. Three, we've had, I think, quite a successful launch with Joyn, 3.8 million monthly active users within the first month, which by the way, is four times what 7TV, the predecessor of Joyn, had the months before.
Four, smart and digital advertising growing +26%. We're making good progress in coming after addressable reach with the joint venture called d-force with RTL and the full commercial launch of addressable TV spot. Five, Red Arrow Studios had another super quarter with +28% revenues and Studio71 also delivering double-digit revenue growth. Last but not least, on NuCom, we're well on track with 18% revenue growth to become a EUR 1 billion leading European digital platform and commerce champion. On slide seven, I just wanted to remind all of us on the breadth of our business, because at times I feel that the narrative is getting a little bit too narrow, that we are a TV advertising business.
While by all means, TV is still a very important core and I think can be a healthy core in the future, we derive 50% of our total revenues from non-TV advertising. In fact, that part of the business, if you count all the parts together, is growing at about +12%. If you look at the parts underneath, you can see on Red Arrow Studios +20%, +41%. You can see on entertainment, the TV core advertising, which continues to be challenged, and I'll talk about more on that later. You also see the growth in digital and smart and distribution. By the way, the negative number on other non-advertising is entirely maximum deconsolidation effect.
If you look at that number organically, it would also be growing, and then you see very good and healthy growth across the four verticals at NuCom. If then we go to slide eight, what are the numbers for Q2 and for the first half? As I said earlier, group revenues are up 4% organic and reported. Entertainment revenues are -1% organic, and that is a mix of a 3% decline in TV core advertising offset two thirds by 26% growth in digital and smart advertising. Red Arrow Studios are growing 21% and 28% organic and reported, and Commerce NuCom Group are +7 and +18 reported. The +7 are marginally weaker than we would like because there is some weakness in the energy market, which is affecting Verivox, all in, we are pleased with that performance.
I think you can see that we are doing what we told you in our strategy, returning to revenue growth, accelerating digital and diversification, and all of that is coming through in our numbers. We've also just seen and closed July. July is a small month, pretty easy comparator, so I don't want to put too much into this. Nevertheless, entertainment and advertising revenues grew 8%, TV advertising grew 4%, and digital grew 68%, which I think is beginning to show the impact of Joyn, as this was the first month where we launched. By the way, if you look at year to date, that takes a minus 3% in advertising to about a minus 1.6%. Our forward outlook, I think in advertising markets continues to be uncertain, but nevertheless, I think this is encouraging that our strategy and execution is taking hold.
On to local content. I gave you an anecdote on "Masked Singer" at the beginning, I just wanted to talk a little about this. "Masked Singer" is a Korean format that then was a smash hit on Fox in the U.S. and we brought to Germany, and has really been a summer fairy tale for us. "Masked Singer" is basically celebrities competing and singing in outrageous costumes. The angel, the astronaut, the kakadu, the monster, and all of Germany feverishly guessing who is behind those masks. We've had 7.2 million viewers on average per episode, 38.1% market share for the finale. By the way, at that very magical moment when the astronaut was revealed, we had over 50% market share and 28.2% average per episode, 26.6 million digital views.
These are numbers we certainly have not seen in this decade, and numbers that usually are reserved to world championships in football. I think it's a wonderful reminder that entertainment has unrivaled magic and power. That investing in content and playing that content across all channels is the right and winning strategy. Now on to slide 10. We're not just entertainment, and so to contrast, I thought I'll give you a view on what we do on magazines or infotainment. We have leading brands in Germany such as Galileo, Frühstücksfernsehen, which is our Good Morning Germany, red! and taff and Late Night. All of them increased market shares and we reach one in four 14 to 29-year-olds. If you look at the numbers on the right, those are 14 to 29-year-old audience shares.
Digital view time across all of them is up 15%. For example, on Late Night Berlin, 40% of all viewing is already digital. All of them, I think are great examples of excellent brand franchises that are meaningful and relevant in TV, but they are meaningful and relevant digitally. They capture broad and importantly, young audiences. Maybe also this is a good reminder of the unparalleled reach all of our programs have across all channels, because we reach about 65 million Germans every single week across all TV and all digital channels. On to slide 11. While I talked about viewer ratings earlier and having had the best June Q2 and first half since 2015, I think we're just getting started. I'm really excited about the great fall lineup.
We have 40 new factual and magazines, eight new movies, including the thriller, "The Abandoned Village," produced by award-winning Wiedemann & Berg team, 14 new reality formats and 24 new shows. I think Queen of Drags with Heidi Klum and produced by our very own Red Seven, will be a very exciting highlight of that fall. By the way, if you look at ProSieben as a channel, we've increased own productions in prime time by 33% this year. On to slide 12. On the 18th of June, we launched Joyn. By the way, built in just under one year from scratch with completely new and world-class tech. We're six weeks in, it's early, but we're very happy with the early momentum that we're getting. Now, I wanted to remind you of the proposition.
This is the one place where with no barriers, you can access the most TV and viewing digitally. 55 live channels, including the public broadcasters, ARD and ZDF. We launched with five originals. 40 formats have seven days previewing. We have about 20,000 episodes in the library, and we're offering 30-day catch up. All of this for free and frictionless. When I meet people over dinner or breakfast, the magical moment I find is you download the app, which takes about five seconds. You open the app, and with two finger movements, you click on Live TV, you click on a channel, and suddenly you have TV right there where you want it. I think that is making entertainment and TV a mobile and broad viewing experience. While it sounds simple, it's quite magical. You can't get this anywhere else.
Certainly, everyone I meet, whether it be friends or family, are hooked. How are the early numbers looking? We've had 3.8 million monthly active users in the first month. That's four times what 7TV had. Our stated target is to get to 10 million within two years, hopefully much faster than that. We've had 1.5 million uniques, almost 2.5 million app downloads. Quite excitingly, this is a mobile-first experience, viewing is about half live and half library. What's next? We're very focused on continuing to improve the free experience by making access to Joyn ubiquitous across all platforms. We're going to load up Chromecast and the remaining smart TVs. Through fall, we're bringing more content, more search functionality, more curation, we are hard at work for a winter premium subscription tier launch.
It's too early to give you all the details on this, but I've just had a review on this last week, and I think we'll be very strong. We'll have 10-plus originals when we launch, a vast library, and amongst other things, we'll be the home of Olympics in 2020. Discovery as a partner is fully committed, and we will begin to look at expansion beyond Germany in 2020. Going to slide 14. How does all of this turn into money? There's a lot of things we're working on, from better client-facing organization to creating total reach metrics. The one that I really wanted to focus on and I think is most important is to build ability for us to hunt more euros of what in totality is a very big, vast, and healthy advertising market. If you want, get out of the TV advertising corner.
The secret to do that is to create large addressable or targetable inventories. We're making good progress on this. Number one, we have launched an addressable TV spot. In Q2, we ran 19 geo-targeted campaigns in the beta version. We have about 60 client requests for the second half. Two, we're working on mixing that addressable TV inventory with addressable digital inventory so that we can reach large enough audiences and clearly Joyn plays an oversized role in this. Three, we've just set up the joint venture d-force with RTL that makes all addressable inventory across their and our infrastructure available in one place. This, I think, makes the job for advertisers and agencies much, much easier and should really support scaling this business that we think will be a multi-billion market in the future.
On to slide 15 and Red Arrow Studios, where we've had a very strong second quarter and first half. On the production side, we saw successful international productions such as "Jailbirds" or "Vienna Blood." "Jailbirds" is, by the way, if I may say so, the non-scripted version of "Orange Is the New Black" and is also running on Netflix. If you haven't seen it, by all means, check in. In the U.K., this format was Netflix number 1 reality show and number 5 of all shows very shortly after its premiere. Studio71, our global digital player, posted double-digit growth in revenues across all key markets, and we're seeing important initiative in the production and podcast market with productions for Facebook Watch in the U.S. and a rising podcast business where we have now done over 40 podcasts live in the U.S.
The best one, I think, is called "Something Scary." It has 4.5 million monthly listeners. If you, other than numbers, trying to pick up some entertainment out of this call, this is very worthwhile to check in. If you look at our total social distribution, plus 27% growth on YouTube, plus 1.7 billion snaps, and lots of very good work across Facebook and other digital infrastructures. On to NuCom, slide 16. I think we're well on track to create a EUR 1 billion commerce champion with NuCom. We're very focused on the four big consumer needs and corresponding verticals. I just wanted to give you two examples. On eHarmony, we're making good progress in integrating that into the Parship Group. Registrations are now growing by 13%.
After a long period of decline, we will switch eHarmony to our tech platforms in fall and have quite a confident outlook on the business. The other example I want to give you is Jochen Schweizer mydays. We launched a Jochen Schweizer TV show called "The Dream Job," where Jochen himself was looking for a new managing director for his company, and all had to go through crazy challenges around the world and, it being Jochen, jump out of planes and all those kind of things. While, by the way, that TV show did good but wasn't a great success, nevertheless, it lifted the growth rate on Jochen Schweizer 2x just because there was more exposure. I think that's another nice reminder that entertainment and commerce are very, very synergistic.
Bill Ford, the General Atlantic CEO, and I talk a lot, and we're both very pleased but also excited about what we may do in the future with this business. That's also on slide 17. You've seen this before. I just wanted to remind us that I think there's a very clear synergy case for NuCom Group and entertainment. I've been, amongst many other things, a marketer for 25-plus years. Having at one's fingertips the awesome entertainment reach, convening, and star power to fuel commerce assets is, I think, the dream of every marketer and is something that we can do unique while our much more tech data-driven commerce businesses are helping us on the journey in entertainment, which is becoming a more consumer-facing and more tech-driven business, witness Joyn. On to slide 18.
I thought I'll close by just giving you an update on how we're doing across our transformational agenda. We have now completed our leadership team with Rainer joining as CFO and Nick joining as CTO, and I think we really have built a top team that has a great balance of industry experience, ProSieben know-how, but also brings fresh thinking to the opportunities and challenges ahead of us. I'm really pleased that Rainer is now on board. It's only been a few weeks, but it feels like we've worked together for years, and he is bringing discipline, urgency, and fresh thinking to our business, P&L, and bottom line. On critical capabilities, as I think you saw earlier, we're really focused on building out important consumer-facing technology and addressable advertising technology, building better sales client structures, and working across a broad range of important partnerships. Partnerships are key to winning.
We've been the original instigator of the European Media Alliance. We have TF1 and Mediaset as shareholders in Studio71. We have just set up the joint venture with RTL, which I really believe is an industry first. We are the first strategic partner for Facebook Watch in Europe. We're doing Joyn together with Discovery, and indeed, we have a few other ideas and cooperations in the pipeline. Now, third, I just wanted to talk about one entertainment company and structure. I think we have a unique opportunity to take the three pillars of our business and really make them operationally very sharp and focused. We have done that successfully with NuCom, which is operating as an end-to-end, clearly structured company. We're now doing the same with entertainment so that we can have an end-to-end company.
We have defined the key leaders, we've defined the operating model, and we will implement this in fall. As we do that, I think it also gives us an opportunity to have a leaner holding structure, and importantly, that setup will offer optionality as we look at the future of the group. Within all of that, the key is that we stay relentlessly focused on executing our organic growth agenda. With that, I pass over to Rainer.
Thanks, Max. Good morning to all of you. Before we delve into Q2 first six months financials, let me start with some personal remarks. As some of you know, I have had some touch points with the broader media industry in the earlier part of my career. When I got in touch with Max for the first time, I was curious how I can help drive the change which Max and the team had set out to deliver. The more we got into detail, the more excited I got about the opportunities, good positioning, top programs, leading viewer shares, strong brands, and synergistic NuCom Group play for ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. There's also a need for transformation. This needs investments to lay foundations for the future growth.
It is early days, but I expect that my focus as CFO will be on three key areas in the coming weeks and months. First, increasing the focus on monetization, reviewing closely, and driving return on investment. Second, exploring more ways of driving down costs and increasing efficiencies. Third, increasing transparency to give you the tools to track the progress we make. As Max said, this is a journey, so bear with us whilst we are implementing the changes that are needed. Now to the results for the second quarter and the first six months, 2019. Slide 20 shows that we achieved group revenue growth of 4%, both in Q2 and the first half 2019. On an organic, as defined as portfolio and currency-adjusted basis, group revenues also grew 4% in Q2, which also is the best organic performance in the group could achieve in the past three quarters.
As you can see on this chart, we also added more details about the organic revenue performance, which should also underpin that I will attach even greater importance to this KPI going forward. Whilst revenues increased in Q2. The development of earnings was marked by the planned and already indicated investments recorded as expenses, in particular in the entertainment segment. About two-thirds of the adjusted EBITDA decline can be attributed to incremental P&L investments in content, digital reach and monetization. Another third primarily stems from the decline of high-margin advertising revenues. As you know, we are undergoing a big investment program in our core business. This affects this year's earning development, but it is necessary actions, and as Max already outlined before, we see encouraging signs that these investments are paying off.
Let me now continue with more color about the revenues and earnings performance of the entertainment segment on page 21. Entertainment segment Q2 revenues declined by 4% or EUR 27 million, which was affected by net deconsolidation effects of maxdome, 7NXT and consolidation of esome in the amount of EUR 23 million. Having said this, organic revenues only slightly declined by 0.8%, which we view as a decent performance given the still demanding TV advertising environment. After minus 6% in Q4 2018 and minus 4% in Q1 2019, Q2 shows an encouraging stabilization of the segment's underlying revenue performance. While TV core advertising revenues declined 3% in quarter two, all other entertainment revenues combined grew 11% organically, with strong contributions of the digital and smart advertising and the distribution business.
Q2 adjusted EBITDA, as expected, declined to EUR 186 million, which primarily reflects a high amount of already indicated P&L investments in program, digital platforms, and monetization initiatives such as advertising technology. As Max already pointed out, these investments have started to bear fruit with a strong audience share performance in the TV business, a growing reach, and usage of our digital products as an advanced and future-ready advertising technology, which will put us in the position to roll out increasingly automated and targeted advertising solutions on a broader scale. The progress also becomes visible in terms of selected operational KPIs, which you can see on page 22. As slide 22 shows, we achieved an overall positive performance in terms of key entertainment data points.
Total video view time, which is a good indicator of the usage of our content across all platforms in the German-speaking markets, increased by 0.3% to 257 billion minutes or 4.3 billion hours. Audience share in the target group 14 to 49 increased by 1.2 percentage points to 28.4%, and the gross advertising share was also marginally up in Q2. The share of digital and smart advertising revenues, which marks the progress we are making in terms of the transformation of our advertising business, increased by two percentage points to 8%. The number of HD subscribers further increased by 7% to 9.8 million. Last but not least, the share of Red Arrow's contribution to the local commissioned content on our TV channel portfolio has strongly increased by five percentage points to 24%. This development illustrates the result of our strategy to increasingly produce key local formats in-house.
Please turn to page 23. In the content production and global sales segment, we saw a dynamic revenue performance of both Red Arrow's TV content production business as well as the Digital Studio71. Q2 external segment revenues increased by 28% and hence has led to a continuing positive performance after an already strong first quarter. In terms of Red Arrow, the positive development was primarily driven by the production companies Endor, Left/Right, as well as our German content production hub, Red Seven. Also not shown on the slide, internal revenues generated with our German-speaking TV operations notably increased by 67% from EUR 14 million to EUR 23 million. Again, this development shows the increasing importance of Red Arrow for our local content initiative and gives us much better control over our most successful programs. Studio71 also continued to grow strongly with an increase in revenues of 41% or EUR 17 million.
The company benefited from strong growth in its key markets, Germany and the United States. Segment-adjusted EBITDA amounted to EUR 9 million and reflects a less favorable revenue mix as well as cost seasonality in Q2. In the first half, however, adjusted EBITDA improved 28%, which mirrors the revenue increase and shows a stable margin development, too. Please turn with me to page number 24. The positive financial performance also becomes visible in terms of the segment's KPIs. Almost all indicators show a positive development with a dynamic increase in terms of hours being produced by Red Arrow as well as monthly minutes watched at Studio71. The latter was largely driven by a significant increase in the number of YouTube channel subscribers, which grew from 1.1 billion to 1.4 billion people globally.
From my point of view, it is worth highlighting that Studio71's monthly usage worldwide has already reached almost 55% of ProSiebenSat.1 TV channel usage in the German market. Although Studio71's monetization potential still is below the level of our TV business, I am convinced that the company will become an increasingly important contributor for the group in the future. Let me continue with the review of the financial performance of the NuCom Group on page number 25. Our commerce segment, also known as the NuCom Group, achieved revenue growth of 18% to EUR 198 million in Q2. The development was driven by double-digit growth in all verticals and benefited from consolidation effects of Aroundhome and Consumer Advice and eHarmony in matchmaking. Portfolio and currency-adjusted revenue growth of 7%, which is mainly the result of a soft development in the Consumer Advice vertical.
Here we saw an organic revenue decline in the mid-single-digit EUR million range, which is related to a volatile energy price comparison market. Whilst Q1 benefited from the insolvency of an energy provider, which led to above average switching requests, tariff developments and limited bonus incentives currently do not foster consumer propensity to switch. All other portfolio companies combined have grown about 13% in revenues organically in Q2, which demonstrates the good progress we are seeing in the other verticals. Adjusted EBITDA on the segment increased by 8%, which is largely the result of the organic growth. The acquisitions of Aroundhome and eHarmony are a great strategic fit to NuCom's portfolio, but as planned, it will take time until their revenue feed through to bottom line. Please move with me to page number 26. The operational KPIs on the commerce segment show a positive development in every category.
While the number of transactions of Consumer Advice and the number of registrations in matchmaking have benefited from acquisitions, the strong growth of transactions in the beauty and lifestyle vertical of +35% illustrates the vibrant development we are seeing there. In order to further stimulate this already strong growth and to secure further market share gains in a rapidly expanding online beauty market, we will step up investments for Flaconi in the second half, particularly in terms of advertising as well as the expansion of the business in Poland. Let me now finish my part of the presentation with the confirmation of our full-year financial targets on page number 27. We continue to target mid-single-digit percentage group revenue growth in full-year 2019. This growth will be primarily driven by our non-TV core advertising business, which has grown 12% in the first half.
This being said, we are optimistic that our group revenue targets can be achieved even under consideration of a potential continued lackluster TV advertising performance. We also confirm our adjusted EBITDA margin target range of 22% to 25%. This range takes into account already announced incremental investments in the entertainment segment of in total, EUR 120 million, as well as additional investments in our online beauty destination, Flaconi, to capture a bigger part of our dynamically growing market. Please note that the level of investments in entertainment in Q3 will be similar to Q2, with a counterbalancing cost development in Q4. While we continue to work on cost efficiency improvements across the group, the ultimate outcome in terms of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income in full year 2019 will, as highlighted before, significantly depend on the TV advertising market development.
Last but not least, I would like to confirm a financial leverage at the upper end of the target range by year-end 2019, which will be supported by a free cash flow-driven net debt reduction. With this, I hand back to Max for closing remarks.
Thank you, Rainer. Before we go to questions, I just thought I'll give you, if nothing else, the three things I want you to take away. Number one, our transformation is on track. It's works in progress, but with group revenue growth of +4%, local content paying off, digital growing 20%+, and continued productive and synergistic diversification with NuCom and Red Arrow Studios, we are on track. Two, we are confident about half year two 2019. We have a strong local content lineup, promising productions Joyn, coming of its own, the launch of addressable TV spots, and further initiatives. Three, remember, it's a transformation journey. We are choosing to invest in our business to build for future growth, both top and bottom line and total shareholder return. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure that the mute function is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. If you find that your question has already been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Once again, it's star one if you wish to ask a question. We will now take our first question from Lisa Yang from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. I have a couple of questions, please. Firstly, I notice you're slightly more conservative now on, or cautious on the TV advertising outlook and expect a decline in TV advertising for the year versus flat to slightly down before. Just wondering if you could maybe quantify the level of decline that you expect, and maybe what sort of assumptions you're making on the level of add-on bookings in Q4. The second question is related to that as well. Previously you said we should expect the EBITDA decline in entertainment of EUR 70 million, that was obviously based on a slightly better TV advertising environment. Just wondering if you can give us an update on the EBITDA decline that you expect this year in entertainment. Thirdly, on NuCom.
To get to your target of EUR 1 billion of revenue for this year, unless there's any big M&A coming in H2, it does imply big acceleration in second half to double-digit organic growth. Given the slowdown in Q2, just wondering what gives you the confidence and what are the various drivers of that improvement in the second half. Thanks.
Good morning, Lisa. I'll take your first question. Look, I think on TV ads, if you look at the first half, we've seen TV ads to be there or thereabout 3.5%. In our planning, we're making conservative assumptions. We're making negative growth assumptions on TV ads in the second half, even though the comparators are easier. As I have said in the past, the market doesn't have a lot of forward visibility. We could end up doing better. We could end up doing a little bit worse. I'm comfortable with our range of forecasting and importantly, in our Q4 swing, it isn't built on an unreasonable TV advertising growth assumption.
Fundamentally, we think TV advertising will continue to be weak, but as I think you've already seen in Q2, and maybe even more pronounced in July, the acceleration of digital and smart advertising is really beginning to counterweigh that in a very meaningful way. We have all the confidence to continue seeing this going forward. I'll answer question three, and then I'll pass over to Rainer on EBITDA. On NuCom. Look, all in, we feel very good about the NuCom portfolio. Yes. Q2, there is a specific weakness on Verivox because the energy markets are a bit compressed. Energy markets have been bumpy in the past. It's fundamentally a question of how much price competition is in that market. We have a very active program that looks at Verivox for the balance of the year, both on energy, but also in accelerating telco and financial verticals.
We are doing incredibly well on Flaconi, have a very strong program running into the balance of the year, and the same is true across the portfolio. I think all in our outlook is positive organically, and with that, I'll pass to Rainer on EBITDA.
Yeah. Thanks, Max. Thanks, Lisa, for your question. There is no update on our EBITDA guidance up to the year-end. We see exactly what we have said before. It all depends overall on the advertising market, as Max already answered the question when you asked the question for the TV outlook and the advertising market for the full year.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Annick Maas, from Exane BNP Paribas. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good morning. My first question is, you've announced last year the share buyback, which was never completed. Given the share price is quite weak actually these days, I was wondering if that could potentially be an opportunity for you to relaunch that share buyback. My second question is on Mediaset, if you just could get a view on how you plan to cooperate with Mediaset. Finally, can you repeat the July numbers you gave on the call? Maybe give us an indication on the August TV address, given you don't have the World Cup comes at that stage. Thank you.
Yeah. Let me answer on the share buyback. First of all, we are not happy with the share price development overall. Obviously not. On the other side, we also have to see what kind of opportunities we will have in the future. The share buyback, it's a good signal for investors, for sure, that we believe in our share, but also can send other signals, that you believe that there is potential in the company. For instance, I already can announce, because I will do it tomorrow, that I will buy some shares too. That's the reason why we are not planning currently to look on the share buyback program.
To your second question, Annick, on Mediaset. Well, look, we have a long-standing and good relationship with Mediaset as we do across the European Media Alliance, which we set up many years ago. In fact, both Mediaset and TF1 are our shareholders in Studio71, our global digital video player. We have constant conversations where there may be growth and synergy opportunities. I think I've mentioned this in the past, namely in the areas of streaming technology, advertising technology, and opportunities to expand European growth across some of our NuCom assets. Let's see what the future brings. On three August ad trends, that's the crystal ball question because then the next question becomes what is September and what is Q4?
It's all very hard to tell, but we are comfortable, I think, with the way we're forecasting the business, and we're comfortable with the guidance that we're providing for the year, and I think would not want to comment further than that. Thank you very much.
Can you just repeat the numbers of July that you've given during the call? They were quite quick.
Yes, I'm happy to do that. July is +8% entertainment and total advertising growth, with +4% underlying TV advertising growth and +68% digital and smart advertising growth. I will say that July is both a small month, and I think you made the point, Annick, the comparators are a bit easier. I think it's encouraging, but I'd be cautious, and I wouldn't run away with those numbers either.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Christopher Yonan from HSBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, thanks for taking my questions. I would like to take them one by one. First, Rainer, maybe some additional comments on your first five weeks. How do you view, if you can say something, the group's leverage targets, the dividend policy, the current group structure? Maybe some additional comments would be appreciated.
Thanks for your question. You are totally right. These are my first five weeks. For sure, you look on everything. Leverage targets, I already outlined that in my outlook. We believe that we will be at the year-end to the higher end, approximately at 2.5 times net debt to EBITDA. Dividend policy is in place, and that's what we have to accept, and it's fine. The group structure, Max already outlined several times that we are working on getting it overall more in the segment areas, and that we will separate Entertainment to make it more efficient.
That's clearly something where I believe this is the right way, and all the things which I found here are well thought, and I'm very optimistic that it will help us to drive the company to a better future if we go this path consequently, and that's exactly what we're doing here.
If I may follow up on that. I understand the comment on leverage for 2019. Would you say it is too early for you to comment on whether you think the leverage target is actually sensible or whether it could be a potential change in view? Same about the dividend policy. You say it's in place, and we have to accept it, and it's fine, but that doesn't necessarily sound as if you are behind it, to be honest.
I am behind it. The targets are existing, and that's the reason why I would like to mention it, because at the end of the day, if you want to change it, then you change it, but this is not our target. Dividend policy is intact. That has been changed. It's fine. The leverage target is also something where we feel comfortable with. Again, that's also something when you work further down, and for sure our target is to reduce the leverage target from the 2.5 times further down. You always have to look, and that's what we also do. We look on opportunities, and if there are opportunities, then you have to discuss it at that time when it's happening.
Okay. That's clear. Second question on Joyn. How should we think about the ad load comparable specifically to 7TV? Is it fair to say that, let's say with three times the amount of traffic, we are basically looking at three times the amount of volume? Related to that on your smart advertising on smart TVs, I noticed that on Samsung, there is still to date, no advertising shown on Joyn. Obviously, I think that's a temporary thing. Do we have any sort of idea on when Samsung will green light the pre-rolls? What sort of impact would you expect that to have, given that, July plus 68%? I would assume Joyn plays a major role in that, if you could comment on that.
Yes. I think all in, it's still early days on Joyn, but I think we're pleased with the launch. Your comment on Samsung is right. We are, because it's complex, working through every technical access infrastructure so that we can have ubiquity in people's ability to access Joyn. We've just uploaded Apple TV, for example, and there are some technical issues with Samsung that are temporary, and I would expect we'll solve as we flow through the quarter. I think in advertising loads, we're, shall I say, smarter and more educated than we were on 7TV before. We also have much better technology. On 7TV, I think, was very annoying at times because you got the same ads and so forth.
We're balancing monetizing well, and I think you can see this in the July numbers, but also let me be very clear that for the moment, we're really focused on building up our user base. It's not quite three times, but not terribly far off. That was it on Joyn or did I miss a piece?
Yeah. Maybe an add one on the Eurosport Player and Discovery basically giving the rights away to DAZN.
Yeah.
Does that-
Look, that was a deliberate joint decision discussed amongst us, it was a very simple choice that we felt just having Bundesliga Friday games isn't fundamentally big enough to make a massive difference. Our joint choice was, that selling that off and then using that money to double down on originals and content, is a better strategy. We are looking at our sports strategy going forward. As I think I commented earlier, 2020 is the year of the Olympics. Via Discovery, we have all the Olympics rights and maybe that'll be a good kickoff and harbinger of more things to come.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Omar Sheikh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Morning, everyone. I've got three questions if I could. Max, maybe in the spirit of not only focusing on the TV business, I'm going to start off with a question on NuCom. Obviously, you've given a little bit of color on the top line for this year. I wonder if you could just clarify the investment that you flagged in Flaconi and whether that would be incremental or self-funded. Maybe just a bit of profit guidance on NuCom, that would be helpful. That's the first question. Secondly, I want to just talk about Joyn. You previously indicated an investment or net investment of EUR 50 million for 2019. In the context of the initial traction you've got, how should we think about the investment next year? Do you think that will be a similar level, the same, or any higher? That's the second question.
Then finally, wanted to just check that I understand the guidance for the full year. Previously, you said that it's based on advertising stable to slightly declining, and you've obviously clarified that a little bit in your comments so far. Are you sort of implicitly saying that the non-TV advertising parts of your business are growing a little bit faster than you previously expected, and therefore, you've reiterated the guidance? Is there some other interpretation? Thank you very much.
Hi, Omar. On NuCom, look, we're making on top investments in Flaconi, I think to the tune of EUR 10 million, somewhere thereabout. That's really because we think we have a fantastic growth case. We're growing 40%. We're, by the way, now expanding in Poland. Beauty e-commerce is still massively underdeveloped. We have more opportunities to link an asset like Flaconi into the access that we have to influencer communities. We're looking at creating broader private label offerings and so forth. We're just really working this all out, and I think is a good example of the kind of growth, energy, and excitement we can get out of NuCom. On Joyn, we would, and I think that's what we've guided before, there or thereabout, see similar investment levels in 2020.
On 2019 guidance, the guidance, I think is what it is, and it's the range that we have provided. There are many moving pieces. I think we have as best as we know, I think, a reasonably conservative view on TV advertising, and we are doing well in accelerating our digital footprint. Then if I may, Omar, given you're the most prominent sector bear, which by the way, I think is entirely legitimate. I always look at it and I think, look, for us to win in entertainment, we have to fundamentally reverse out or prove 2 points. Number 1, we need to prove that we can capture more viewers in the future.
While that's a work in progress, I think we're beginning to do that if you look at our total viewer shares and if you look at the total amount of minutes that are being consumed. Number 2, we have to prove out that we can overcompensate what may very well be a structural decline in TV advertising, with more digital advertising, stage 1. Again, we're beginning to do that, not completely, but I think you can see the trends. Then stage 2, with smarter advertising products that access more of the market and by the way, monetize better for us. Again, you can see that we're beginning to do that, which is also why you see Rainer and me continuing to put our personal money in this business because we believe in it. Thank you.
Okay. Understand that, Max. Maybe I could follow up then in that context on Joyn. If you're trying to grow sort of offline viewers or viewers outside of traditional linear television, do you think the EUR 50 million investment per annum in that platform is enough? If you are looking to build a platform of scale, do you think there's scope for you to invest more?
The EUR 50 million are the net loss, and by the way, there's two partners, so that's two times EUR 50 million net loss. If you look at the absolute investments flowing in, they are significantly above that. I'd actually have to look up the number, but Ralf, maybe if you look at the total investments, they surely are two to three times that, no?
Omar, Ralf speaking. Obviously, as you can assume, Joyn is a business with revenues in excess of EUR 100 million already. When you then compare this to the net loss, which in total is around about EUR 100 million, you can see that we have a substantial investment jointly with Discovery into the venture. We believe, according to what we plan, that this will suffice.
Actually, let me, because it's a really fair question, no? It's are you putting enough firepower into the fight? I think the other thing that we're doing is we are uniquely using the broader entertainment infrastructure that we have to feed and drive Joyn, whether that is trailers, that are saying after you've watched an episode on Monday evening, if you want to see the next episode, you can see it live on Joyn right now instead of waiting until next week, whether that is cross-wiring fan communities, or whether it is making our staff available. There's both, if you want monetary, tangible money, but there's a lot that we are feeding in that doesn't show up in the P&L, but at the end of the day, if somebody else did it would cost tens and tens of millions of EUR.
Got it. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Adrien de Saint Hilaire from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, good morning, everyone, and thanks for taking the question. I've got a few of them, please. Max, you mentioned the fact that your first half was the best since 2015 in terms of market share. I was just wondering if you could make the same analysis, looking at the absolute viewing time. How does H1 2019 compare to previous years? Secondly, you mentioned 68% growth in digital and smart advertising in July. Is it fair to assume that now that the d-force joint venture has been approved, growth would accelerate from that level? Thirdly, maybe a question for Rainer as well. You did the deal with General Atlantic a couple of years ago, valuing commerce at EUR 1.8. Obviously, that doesn't seem to be the number which the market retains right now. Would you consider other, let's say, value crystallization opportunities around commerce or around other assets?
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Adrien. On your first question, I think on absolute viewing time, given linear viewing is declining, if you were to compare the numbers, in absolute viewing, it'd probably be 5%-10% below. The bit that I think is really interesting to me is, as we started to measure total video view time, and by the way, we're working hard on measuring net reach across all channels and platforms, but it's actually quite difficult, so we just don't have those numbers yet. For me, that's a really important metric, no? Fundamentally, my view is, in entertainment, we are in the business of producing great content that people want to see, and the first measure of success is, are more people seeing it? I'm very agnostic on whether they're seeing it in a linear viewing experience on Joyn digitally or whatever.
I think that's quite a meaningful and important proof point. On your second question on digital and smart ad growth. Yes, you caught the wire. I was going to make a comment on this. The cartel authorities have approved the RTL d-force joint venture with us, which I think is a really good and encouraging sign, because it creates a really important infrastructure point in the market where advertisers and agencies can now access the totality of addressable and smart inventory across TV and across digital and across the RTL universe and the ProSiebenSat.1 universe in one place. I think in scaling that will be very meaningful, and yes, I think underpins a continued positive outlook on digital and smart advertising growth. 68 is a big number.
I think if you look at the first half at 26%, would we expect that 26 to accelerate in the second half? The answer is yes. I don't want to quantify that number. On NuCom valuation, look, just as on entertainment, I think we're very focused in operationalizing NuCom. We've done a lot of work there. I think we have put very good teams in place. We have a very clear strategy around four big consumer needs and verticals. We have absorbed and bolted on a number of businesses, and we're beginning to turn yield and growth on those. I think all of that is progressing very well.
As I have said in the past, at the right moment in the future, we will look at value crystallization opportunities and the most obvious being at some point in time to IPO NuCom and/or IPO asset clusters within those. For the moment, we're in executing and operating mode. Thank you.
That's very clear. Many thanks, Max.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Laurie Davison from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi. It's three questions from me, please. First, just a question on advertising, Dentsu have just missed numbers and cut guidance today, specifically on multinationals advertising into Asia. I'm just wondering whether you've seen any deterioration within the mix of the advertising you've reported from multinationals starting to cut back in July and August. Second question, for Rainer. M&A is back up again. You've spent EUR 101 million in the first half. Previous CFOs have talked about ongoing M&A of around EUR 200 million, you were quite significantly below that last year. Should we be thinking that M&A spend on a reoccurring basis is going back up to the kind of EUR 200 million level on a full year basis? Lastly, another question for Rainer. If advertising were to significantly deteriorate in the second half, what would be sacrificed? The dividends, the joint investment, programming spend, or M&A? Thanks.
Laurie, I will take the first one. I used to spend a lot of time in Asia, but where multinationals are going in Asia, I think, has little impact on what is happening here. Look, as I said before, the advertising market has little visibility. There are some sectors that are strong and weak, but we don't see any accelerating signals. I'll give you an example. Automotive has been a weaker part of that market, certainly last year and this year. There's actually some momentum coming in because both VW and BMW are launching big e-mobility campaigns, and we're participating in those. The point I'm trying to make is it's incredibly difficult to manage or forecast market, because at the end of the day, it's an aggregation of individual players in the industry.
As I said before, we are comfortable, I think, with the guidance range and forecasting that we have put in for the year.
Let me answer the second question, M&A. Honestly, I don't want to put out a number in the market because it's opportunity driven. When we have something which is attractive, then we will look into it, and then we decide based on numbers, very disciplined, if we can do it, if we want to do it, and if it creates value for the company overall. That's the only thing I would like to say to that.
Just by the way, on the EUR 100 million, to make a comment, because I think they are, quote unquote, "a good EUR 100 million." We've used them to take over minority shareholders that we had in Studio71. We have a strong belief set on Studio71, and we're one of the top 3 global digital video players. I just had a long meeting with the global YouTube and Google executives on what we might do more. I think that's money very well spent. We have taken out minority shareholders on Virtual Minds. Let me remind you that the Active Agent is the technology engine that is driving our RTL joint venture. Again, that to me feels like very value creative money being spent. The third is we bought Regiondo, which is an important component of taking our experience business to the next level.
Because experiences are one of the fastest growing and most highly valued sectors globally, and we have a pole position, and we want to be the ones that enable people in Germany, app-based, to book any experience they want anywhere and at any point in time. Regiondo is adding very important capabilities for us to do so.
The last question is a difficult one, because at the end of the day, our belief is that we reach our numbers at the year-end. That's the reason why we've reiterated our guidance from a margin point of view for the EBITDA margin between 22% and 25%. I feel comfortable, and that's for sure what you do when you come new on board. You look on the current analyst forecast, and I've seen that the most of the analysts have an EBITDA margin between 22% and 23%. Here, overall, I feel comfortable. Whatever happens, and Max already said that in his speech, we reiterated that in our outlook statement also for the top line. With the mid-single digit growth number, we feel also comfortable.
Therefore, for me, it's more or less that we have to deliver on what we promised, and that's exactly how I would like to play it. If there is something new to tell, then we will discuss it.
Okay. Just in terms of priorities here, what comes first out of those four?
Overall, as I said, there is always a mixture between things, and then we have to see what is necessary, what is not necessary. Again, we feel comfortable with our guidance for the year-end.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Patrick Schmidt from Warburg Research. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes. Thank you for taking my question. Maybe a quick follow-up on your M&A strategy. What is your leftover firepower for H2? You said it's opportunity driven. Do you actually have any opportunities in H2 looking at your leverage ratio and targets for the full year? Would be the first question. Secondly, where do you see your long or, let's say, midterm profitability in your entertainment segment? We're obviously all aware that you, at the moment, are investing heavily into advertising technology and content, et cetera. Do you see, for example, let's say, overall higher production costs, especially when you compare yourself, let's say, five years ago, when you mainly broadcasted U.S. content? Lastly, it's just a quick follow-up regarding Joyn and the Discovery bit that they sold the Bundesliga rights. Were you aware of that when you got into that cooperation?
Because I think it's one of the most attractive assets you had for a potential premium or potential, let's say, paying customers for your plans in winter. Thank you.
For the M&A strategy and firepower, for sure, it all depends on the EBITDA which you're buying, because it's a calculation game. On the other side, our guidance, at the upper end of the two and half times is based on no M&A further on. We have to see what is happening, and then it's opportunity-driven. If we find something which is attractive, then we have to discuss it. Currently, I would say we feel comfortable with our guidance. On top of it, what I said at the beginning, it's opportunity-driven. Second question, long and midterm profitability and entertainment. First of all, we focus on the year-end numbers. As we all know, that's difficult enough. What we have discussed already, in that case, that we have fundamentally to prove that we get up in Q4 our numbers, and that's based on the advertising market.
We have mentioned that several times during this call. Again, we feel comfortable, and we take it from there in March then.
Just to add one point on entertainment. Yes, there are elements where we are adding cost because we're creating more locally meaningful programs, and there's some degree of program station, I guess, going forward. At the same point in time, as our reach becomes targetable, that reach is a lot more valuable. I'm a very big believer also that in the long term, mid to long term profitability and entertainment can and will be very attractive on Joyn. Yes. That was a complete joined up discussion with Discovery, and we decided that together. Not because Bundesliga is not attractive, it's terribly attractive, but it's only the Friday games. It's a too thin slice.
We felt relative to the cost to make a big difference, and so we jointly decided to use that money and double down on original content creation, and then work on a sports strategy, I think, really kicking in gear with the Olympics next year.
All right. Thank you. Maybe just a quick follow-up on entertainment again. You feel comfortable that you can reach, let's say, historical margins within that segment in the mid to long term?
Overall, we are not margin-driven in that case. We are more the absolute number, which is relevant for us at the year-end.
Okay. I understand the point of the year-end, but I'm talking about the midterm, so let's say next three to five years.
It is too early to forecast that right now. Let's finish the year, and then we will discuss it again. Again, we are more looking on the absolute number like also did it in the past, because that's relevant, because that's generating cash flow and that's generating profitability and opportunities also for the future.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Sarah Simon from Berenberg. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Yes, hi. I've got just three quick ones. Firstly, just on Joyn. Max, I think you said, but can you just confirm that the 68% growth in July is not really coming from Joyn because you haven't started to push the monetization, so it's more about core online as opposed to Joyn. Second one was just on d-force. Can you give us a quick rundown of what that actually means in terms of the commercial offer? The third one was just on Studio71. How much of the revenues of Studio71 are coming from Germany? Thanks.
On Joyn. No, the 68% in July are meaningfully impacted by the launch of Joyn. I think it's actually a positive sign that Joyn is beginning to impact the expansion of our digital growth strategy. On Studio71, Germany is there or thereabout 25% of the global footprint. No. Mid-double digit million EUR. Thank you. On d-force, well, look, what it means in terms of commercial offer is that, and we're in the midst of working, kind of bringing this alive technically, but it fundamentally means that we're able to make addressable TV, addressable/targetable digital inventory available across the infrastructure that RTL has and our infrastructure, put that together and offer that to clients. We have about, I think, 60 clients or so that have initial interest. As these things go, first we needed to set it up, which we've done. We needed approval, which we've done.
Now we need to start going live. I think as we go live and we get into Q3 and into the future, we will begin giving you more detail and more numbers on how that is going.
Presumably you've got two separate sales forces, but sharing of the infrastructure. Is that the way we should think about it, so that there's one interface for the buyer?
No, it's a programmatic platform, so the inventory is already ingested.
Yeah.
Of course, the pricing is set completely independent by both companies.
Right.
I have one programmatic base where I can access all the inventory, that makes it much easier, much faster, and less complicated for clients and agencies to access addressable and smart inventories.
Perfect. Thanks.
Thank you. Our last question comes from Richard Eary from UBS. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.
Thanks. Just four actually quick questions. First one, Max, just in terms of, you've mentioned total view time a number of times in the presentation, and it was sort of encouraging to see the fact that that actually had stabilized. Can you actually give us a sort of breakdown in terms of that total view time between linear and nonlinear so we can actually track that performance, so we can understand how that relates to the advertising share that you've given on that slide as well? That's the first question. The second question, you talked about, obviously, some initial programmatic sales, which I think you said you'd already done 18 sales, but obviously potential to do 60 in the second half. Can you talk about the pricing of that in terms of those 19 geo campaigns and what the pricing differentials were so we can understand that?
The third question is on Joyn. I think I heard correctly that you talked about the potentially to grow that geographically. I don't know whether you can expand on that or whether it's too soon to do so. Then, Rainer, just on the last question, just on guidance. I know this has probably been asked in several different ways, just to be clear, the historical guidance was talked about as a EUR 50 million EBITDA impact this year on the consolidated numbers. With the Flaconi investments of EUR 10 million that was mentioned on the call, should we now think that widens from EUR 50 to EUR 60, or is there something that I've missed? They're the four questions. Thanks.
Let me take your first three. On total view time, so if you take on total view time, if you want the amount of linear decline, and then you look at how we are filling up relative to that linear decline, then two-thirds of that is the growth in market audience shares, and about one-third is the growth in digital. By the way, if you recall one of the KPI pages, if you look at our total footprint, about 8%, I think is now digital. On the one hand, one could say, "Well, that's really small. Shouldn't it be bigger?" The answer is yes. I think it's a fantastic opportunity because it also shows how much scalability we still have going forward. On programmatic sales, pricing of campaigns, I don't want to comment on specifically.
Yes, all in, we think, as campaigns become addressable, there is pricing opportunity to the tune of 50% to 100%. For the moment, we're really just focused on scaling that business. It's a very new thing in Germany, helping our client partners and our agency partners understand what it is we have to offer and scale up. On Joyn, potential growth geographically, the answer is yes. We have two big European media players that have expressed strong interest to think about and look with us, whether this could travel beyond. I think the answer here is one of timing and sequencing. We're very, very focused in completing the build-out of our AVOD and free offering. We're very focused in putting the premium layer together for a launch in winter. That is absorbing 100% of the energy and the team that we have available.
As and when that is done, we will begin taking a look at when, how, and with what kind of structure we might look at opportunities beyond our core markets.
Max, can I just ask a quick follow there? Go back to that slide, which is 22 in the deck, with total view time, 257 billion minutes of that. What is the actual breakdown of that in terms of digital versus linear to compare with the 92% and 8%, basically, for core advertising and digital and smart?
Yeah.
Yeah. Richard, it's Dirk speaking.
Yeah.
Just a quick comment. Yeah, you see on the same slide, also the daily linear TV consumption, which was down 2%.
Yeah.
This obviously has affected the whole market. In the total market, we have gained audience.
Around about two-thirds of linear TV viewing gains we have achieved by audience share gains. The rest, basically, why we are up in total, is derived from our digital assets as well as Studio71 in Germany, but it's not including Studio71's global business.
Okay, thanks.
By the way, Yeah, go ahead, Max.
No, I was just going to make a comment, because all of you look at linear viewing numbers, which continue to show a decline, and one would think sometimes that decline is accelerated. You have got to be a bit careful with those numbers, because for example, they don't measure at all today what viewing is caught on streaming platforms and so forth. That's why we're now looking increasingly at total video view time, so the total amount of what's being consumed, and then the measure that we're working hard on is to be able to look at total reach, and then be able to un-duplicate that reach across everything, because I think that's the truest view of how many people are watching our stuff and whether they're doing that in a linear or digital experience, I'm completely agnostic to.
Let me answer your last question. Please take into account that everything which we have already announced, especially the incremental investments in our entertainment segment of the approximately EUR 120 million, as well as the additional investment in our online beauty destination, Flaconi, are part of our guidance range, which we have given out. Also have in mind, again, that the level of investment in entertainment in Q3 will be approximately similar to our Q2 investments, then we have to counterbalance these investments with cost development in Q4. That's also one of the things we are working on, is cost efficiency improvements across the group. For sure, the ultimate outcome in terms of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income in the full year 2019 will depend significantly on the TV advertising market development for the year end.
Therefore, yes, the extra investment of whatever the number will be, EUR 10 million-EUR 20 million for Flaconi, will impact the year, but it's all included in our guidance. Again, I feel comfortable with the numbers which we have seen margin-wide between 22%-23% from the analyst, which we can see currently.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, ladies and gentlemen, this was the last question for the call. We thank you for your participation, and if you have any follow-ups, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Dirk and team. With this, we wish you a very good day. Thank you.