And welcome to the First Half twenty eighteen Results Conference Call of RTL Group. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Andrew Buckhurst. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining this conference call for our results for the half of twenty eighteen. On Slide 2, you will find the agenda. We will start with the highlights and a quick summary of the financials, followed by a review of our main business segments. We will end with an update on our strategy and outlook. I'd like now to introduce our speakers for today, our CEO, Bert Haddert and the group's CFO, Irma Heggen.
I will now hand over to Bert, who will begin today's presentation on Slide 3. Thank you, Andrew, and good morning, everybody. In the first half of twenty eighteen, Artiakou continued its successful business development and total video strategy. And more importantly, we continue to look ahead with a high degree of confidence because we are acting from a position of strength. We are all experiencing the rapid growth of more direct to consumer video offers, marking the biggest shift in the economics of the TV industry in decades.
And Artiol Group is not immune to this. In fact, we are actively embracing it as we are at the start of a fundamental change for the group. And that is why we redefined TV into total video 3 years ago. With our very strong market positions, we have the power to accelerate our total video strategy because we have a very highly profitable cash generating core business in TV broadcasting. Fremantle has successfully branched out into scripted drama.
And in digital video, we are among the leaders in adtech and on the YouTube ecosystem. This portfolio makes RTL Group the pan European leader in total video, a portfolio that continues to deliver a very strong financial performance. First half year revenue was up for the 4th consecutive year and surpassed the €3,000,000,000 mark for the first time. We'll move on to Slide number 4. The good results for the first half of twenty eighteen highlight once again the key strength of Artia Group.
Our long term track record is based on this business model that stands for resilient top line growth, a highly diversified revenue mix and high quality earnings. This allow us to combine attractive dividends with significant growth initiatives, as demonstrated by the growth of Fremantle and our digital revenues. Above all, our clear focus on local exclusive content is and will remain the power engine for all our total video offers. We'll move on to Slide number 5. These pleasing results come despite the impact of the various global sports events, the rising number of nonlinear platforms and trade and political tensions on a global and European scale.
The 2nd quarter results are especially strong with revenue growth of 3.6 percent, outstripped by EBITDA growth of 4.7%. These impressive Q2 numbers helped the group to a very strong first half year results with growth repeated in both revenues and EBITDA. We'll move on to the next slide. Looking at the group's overall revenue split, growth in content and digital revenues have resulted in TV ad revenue coming in just below the 50% mark at 48%. This is a good balance between growth, profitability and cash generation.
On the right hand side of the chart, you can see that digital revenues amounted €424,000,000 with platform revenues growing to a level of €167,000,000 Digital revenue now represents almost 13.9%, and platform revenues is at the level of 5.5% of RTL Group's total revenue. Digital revenue grew by 9% year on year, which was impacted heavily by foreign exchange rate effects. Once adjusted for these, the growth rate rises to 14% year on year with almost 16% in the 2nd quarter alone. Moving on to the next slide. Artea Zutko fosters more organic growth initiatives across all our main businesses.
1st, by building 3 year on demand services that attract mass audiences across all content genres secondly, by continuing Fremantle's push into scripted drama And thirdly, we continue to build on our MPN and FX stack to deliver a truly global online video offer. With that, I will now hand over to Al Marc, who will talk you through the financials. Thank you, Bert, and good morning from me as well. Turning now to the financial review starting on Slide 9. Before moving to the first half year results, I would like to say a few words on the results of the Q2 of 2018.
As you can see on Slide 9, revenue for the period was up 3.6 percent to EUR 1,630,000,000. Main drivers of this revenue development are as follows. Free metal reported growth of 9% despite having a very tough comp following the launch of American Goss in 2017 and continued ForEx headwinds. RTL Netherlands reported growth of 6.5% as both advertising and non advertising revenue continued to grow. And finally, broadband TV reported a quarterly growth rate that exceeded 35%.
This good growth in revenue was translated into operating profit as both EBITDA and EBITDA rose 4.7% and 7.3% respectively, resulting in a margin improvement across the board. Moving on to Slide 10, a summary of the results for the 1st 6 months of 2018. Revenue rose 2.3 percent to €3,046,000,000 Underlying revenue, adjusted for scope changes and ForEx, was up 3.7%. This was the highest organic growth revenue the highest organic revenue growth rate in the first half of since 2010. The overall negative FX impact as at the end of June on the reported revenue amounted to €59,000,000 The group's cost base rose 1.9% and was largely due to an increase in program rights and personnel costs, the majority which are due to several payments following the restructurings in Belgium and the Netherlands and at the Footbump Cup, Verandain de Bordeaux.
This results in an EBITDA of €638,000,000 for the 1st 6 months of 2018 and a stable margin well above 20%. The group's net debt at the end of the period was €943,000,000 down slightly when compared to the same period last year. Following this good set of results, the Board has approved an interim dividend payment amounting to €1 per share. This will be paid out on 6th September with the share going ex dividend on the 4th September. Moving on to Slide number 11.
The net profit attributable to ARCE Group shareholders for the period was stable at €318,000,000 despite the higher EBITDA. This is almost solely due to the higher tax charge, which incorporates lower deferred tax assets following a reduction in local tax rates. The group's net result translates into an earnings per share of €2.07 Moving now to cash flow on Slide 12. Net cash from operating activities increased to €226,000,000 for the first half of twenty eighteen. The income tax paid rose to €280,000,000 largely as a result of lower receipt from the German tax pooling and higher tax payments in the U.
S, reflecting the growth of Fremantle in this important territory. Overall, reported free cash flow was broadly stable at €420,000,000 resulting in a cash conversion of 77%. I will now hand you back over to Bernd for the business review. Thank you, Elmer. Starting with the business review of Mediengruppe on Slide 14.
As expected, volume shares in 2018 have been weaker than the prior year. Our family of channels reported an audience share of 27.3 and were the clear market in Germany. RTL Television was once again the only channel in Germany with a double digit audience share in the target group. The net TV advertising market is estimated to have increased by approximately 0.5% to 1.5% over the 1st 6 months of the year, with Mediengruppe performing in line with this. Accordingly, overall revenue rose 0.8 percent to 1,070,000,000 while EBITDA rose with a similar percentage to €366,000,000 This results in a very healthy EBITDA margin of 34.2%.
We'll move on to Slide number 15. Despite the weaker all day audience share, our German family of channels continues to hold a very significant lead in the time slots of Axis Primetime and Primetime.
As an
example, the audience favorite soap, during a period of time of 32 days. These two time slots are very important as between 50% to 60% to 65% of the group's advertising revenues is generated across these hours. We'll move on to 16. TV Now. TV Now, Media Group's video on demand service is showing strong growth across KPIs such as the number of paid subscribers and video views.
And this growth is expected to continue as we start investing in more original productions regardless of their genre that can first be viewed on TV Now. This expanded content offer will include both pure online content, which we acquire in the German and international licensing markets, and original productions specifically made for TP Now, which will boost the image and appeal of our service. While we are open to partnerships with other market participants, there is no rush to do so. We are in a strong position given our high share of own production, so we can take time to properly evaluate possible partnership options. Moving on to Slide 17.
As you are aware, Coop MC reported its results at the end of July. In an advertising market estimated to be up 1.9%, Group MC's advertising revenue grew by 0.9%. Overall revenue was almost stable at the level of €739,000,000 with EBITDA coming in at €182,000,000 euros The group's revenue was negatively impacted by lower production and all the visual rights revenue, while EBITDA was boosted by the distribution agreements signed at the beginning of this year. Volume share reached 21.1% for the family as a whole. I'll move on to Slide number 18, the Netherlands.
The combined allian share was down at 27.7%, mainly as a result of this year's sports events being broadcasted on the public channels. The advertising market in the Netherlands remains tough. However, after 2 years of decline, we have seen the TV advertising market increase by an estimated 3% so far. RTL Netherlands ad revenue grew in line with the markets, with the overall revenues rising to a level of 5.7 percent to 241,000,000 thanks to a strong development at VideoLANs, our local streaming video on the mount servers. EBITDA improving substantially to €32,000,000 I move on to Fremantle, Slide 19.
Revenues increased strongly by 5.2 percent to the level of €672,000,000 in the 1st 6 months of the year. As you can see in the revenue bridge, this is despite significant negative FX impacts and is mostly thanks to strong organic growth amounting to €66,000,000 This presents a 10.3% organic growth rate and reflects the relaunch of American Idol and strong performances across the Branaslades. EBITDA was stable at the level of €42,000,000 resulting in an EBITDA margin of 6.3 All in all, the number of broadcast hours of Fremantle content was 6,202, up 7% year on year. Fremantle continued its push into drama with the number of hours growing almost 15% to 7:39 hours, while entertainment grew 7% also thanks to the relaunch of American Idol. Moving on to Slide number 20.
American Idol, television's most successful and recognized music competition show, returned in March 2018 to the U. S. Screens, this time on ABC. With an average total audience share of 8.6, it performed over 40% higher than ABC primetime average. And by the end of the season, American Idol had cumulated more than 1,000,000,000 video views across all social media platforms, and the American Idol app had been downloaded by 1.2000000x.
American Idol has been sold to more than 150 categories, with one of the most recent deals being Amazon Prime Video UK. On September 1, Jennifer Mullen will take over the helm at Fremantle. She has been a key force in Fremantle's creative renewal across unscripted and scripted program and has a matchless understanding of the global content industry. We are very much looking forward to working with Herdy to further drive the growth of our global content business. We move on to Slide number 22.
In our rapidly changing total video industry, growth mainly comes from nonlinear or streaming services. We will increase investments in our video on demand services with a clear focus on local exclusive content. As I said before, this focus is the power engine for all of our total video offers. And with Fremantle's push into scripted drama, we will continue to fuel our content pipeline. Looking at these two main areas in a more detail, we will start looking at this at Slide number 23 with our video on demand plans.
On this slide, I would like to reiterate our plans from what we call our hybrid TV on demand offer. This model combines a free advertising finance service with the premium paid products. The premium service will offer the consumer more exclusive content in HD quality and with the lower ad loads. 1st examples of our building strong local streaming champions are the upcoming massive expansion of TV Now in Germany and our existing platform in the Netherlands, Vico Lens. This approach would require more investments in local digital first content, more enhanced direct to consumer business models and the shared use of our common technology platforms, as has been the case with the use of our seat plate technology and the rollout in the markets like Belgium, Croatia and Hungary.
Slide number 24. On this slide, you can see concretely what we have achieved so far in terms of the group's direct to consumer offers. We now have or will shortly significantly have significant video offers in each of our largest broadcast markets, Germany, France and the Netherlands. Subscribers, video views and viewing time are all showing dynamic growth rates. And this bodes well for the future as we continue to invest in these platforms and platforms and continue to invest in the content offers.
Accordingly, we expect further growth over the years to come. Slide 25. As you are aware, it takes time to build a solid Rama portfolio, but progress has been made. We believe you need a global presence, strong production credibility and access to excellent talent on screen and off screen in order to be successful in this area. If we look at the shows that we launched in 2018, all these elements can be identified.
All the dramas mentioned were produced in different countries: Australia, Italy, Denmark, Germany. And all of them were made with very high production standards in collaboration with very prestigious partners like Netflix, Amazon and HBO. And there's more to come if you look at the slate for 2019. Currently, Fremantle is seeking funding for at least 35 scripted ideas. Consequently, the international drama productions are expected to generate more than 20% of Fremantle's consolidated revenue in 2019.
Moving on to 26. We are in the business on a daily basis of maximizing and monetizing the consumers' attention to our broad variety of video offers across all devices. This is what we mean by total video. To achieve this, we are going back to our roots to reinvent the pioneering spirit within the group, from a holding company to a proactive, dynamic company that takes risks and invests. We will become more consumer centric while driving closer collaboration and synergies across all parts of our business.
But we must not change what has made the group so successful, and that's what I mean by the DNA of the group. This DNA has enabled us to consistently take a long term view to everything what we do and has allowed us to take risks and to experiment while not threatening the financial stability of the business. We are ready to invest and to take calculated risks in order to shape the next chapter of RTL Group success, success of a long profitable storyline. This will include a strong focus on fostering organic growth initiatives. I move on to Slide 27 on the outlook.
The strong set of financial results in the first half of twenty eighteen demonstrate the importance of the group's total video strategy. Despite challenging market conditions, RTL Group continued to grow its top line and at the same time generate a very healthy EBITDA margin. The group remains highly cash generative, and we are paying an interim dividend once again. In terms of guidance, we reconfirm the outlook given in March and most recently on May 17. Accordingly, we continue to expect moderate revenue growth for the full year and an EBITDA on a normalized basis that is expected to be broadly in line year on year.
This concludes the formal session of the call. And needless to say, we're open to answer the questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you. Our first question today comes from Chris Jonan of HSBC.
Yes, good morning guys. Thanks for taking the question. I would like to take them 1 by 1, if you don't mind. So first, coming back to the idea of a German hooter, you say, that there is no rush to do anything and that you can take time to evaluate your options. But I mean, why is Germany that much different than France in your vehicles?
With Seltzer, I think you see the benefits of a combined offer there. And I'm just curious, yes, how you're thinking about the difference of a German hoodoo versus the French offering?
That would
be my first question.
Okay. I think to reiterate, we are very open to exploring partnership options as you have seen in the French market, but definitely also for the German markets. But partnership options should be based on embracing this the right strategy on what we believe to be the right streaming service combined with the right business model and the right business terms. And I think, as we all know, this is quite complex to achieve. And that is the reason why we have not advanced in the German market yet.
Okay. Understood. Then second question coming to Holland. Not sure how surprised you were by the uptick in advertising. I think a lot of people were, especially after the performance in the last couple of years.
So I mean, what has changed in the market in your view if you're looking if we're looking 1 year back, I think we've seen quite a negative downward spiral on prices, sort of a race to the bottom on pricing. Has the markets improved in terms of rationality? Is this World Cup related? What's changed in the Netherlands in your view?
I think it's a combination of
a lot of elements.
We see that there is better visibility on new clients joining the TV segment, especially in the e commerce segments, where we see these strong new clients stepping into TV and combining that with digital exposure. We have been able to increase prices in the first half of the year. And FMCG has also turned back to TV where they in the previous year, they have taken away some of their commitments in the Dutch landscape.
So that sounds like something that will or should continue in the second half, if I'm getting you right?
Needless to say, visibility is limited, but at least the initial trend in the Q3 shows a continuation of that pattern that we've seen in the 1st 6 months of the year.
Okay. That's clear. And then my last question on online video in Germany. You may have seen that your biggest peer there seems to have a bit of an issue with significant declines on the ad VOD side of the business. Could you discuss a bit how you guys have performed in Q2 and the first half, what you're seeing there.
I would guess that looking at some of the market data, you should be up, but I'm not sure whether it's low double digit or less. And I think a lot of people, especially when looking at performances of some of your other peers, international peers, would maybe expect a little bit stronger growth than that. So maybe you could spend a couple minutes talking about what you see in online video in Germany. That would be interesting.
Yes. I think we've successfully continued to develop our video on demand service and the online video advertising proposals in the market, both through our offers of Media and Group, but also through SpotX and SmartFlip. So we have experienced a growth in this domain, and we're confident also in the second half to continue building these services and the offers with the advertisers going forward.
And outside of the multiplatform business, so just the sort of classic online video for catch up services, etcetera, how are you seeing growth there?
In in stream advertising, we've continued to see growth in the 1st 6 months of the year, and we're continuing to be confident in that domain to continue to grow. And Chris, that growth is despite the fact that we've had a negative, so to say, scope change where we had one business which we basically pulled out of or merged with another activity. So in terms of like for like, we've got a negative sort of headwind. But despite that, we're still up on the 1st 6 months.
Sorry, do you mean smart clip moving segment out of No,
no. It's a Netflix, which has gone to another business. Okay. Venture.
Okay. Got it. Thanks, guys.
We will now take a question from Julien Roch of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Continuing on the German Hulu, you said that you were hoping to partnership, but you have to get the right strategy, right business model and right business term, so quite complex to achieve. Could we have some idea of the timing? So are you actually talking to other market participants currently? And when will you make a decision broadly of joining forces or going alone?
Are we talking couple of months before year end or next year? That's my first question. My second question is, could we get advertising trends in Q3 for Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Spain? And final question is, can we have an update on broadband TV? Thank you.
Okay. I'll let me take the first one on the German Gulu question. I think we are preparing for a relaunch and scale up of the business of Tintin Now in Q1 2019. We will continue to invest and prepare for building and scaling up our own streaming video on demand offers, And we will not allow any kind of future talks to delay any of our own organic growth plans that people have. But again, I restated my openness to future exploring future partnerships, But we, as you know, it is very complex.
But also with regard to timing, this is a very difficult question to answer. Maybe on the ad trends. Yes. Julien, we expected the beginning of the Q3 to be rather difficult given the fact that the World Cup was basically spreading into July. That is also what we have seen.
Overall, as you know, July August are rather small months. And for us, when we think about the underlying possibility, September to November is far more important. We will basically disclose our 30th of September results on the 8th November, and by then, we will have a very good visibility for the full year. We just reiterated our outlook. So there you can basically read that we continue to believe that there are no reasons why the advertising should all of a sudden turn sour.
But it is unfortunately true that we have very limited visibility, and we only would like to kind of guide if we see where we are heading to. So it's a bit early. But overall, no concerns about second half, but too early to say. Broadband TV? And maybe on broadband TV, we can actually be quite quick because we are very happy with the performance of the business, and they have experienced strong growth in the 1st 6 months of the year.
They're acting in line with budget and our expectations. But on the strategic front, there is no news versus the previous calls.
But is there no deadline? Because I said there was a limit to the window for the put in the calls or can you extend discussion forever?
Not forever, Julien, but we still have time. And our focus is to make sure that we find the best strategic option for the company, by the way, both shareholders, I. E, our hotel group and the minorities. And we want to be sure that we have explored all options and avenues before making such decision. We do not want to be rushed into anything.
So yes, it takes more time, but it's time well invested.
So just on the final, so
you said not forever.
I mean, is there a deadline? Do you have to make a decision by a certain date? And if yes, what is that date?
I mean, we don't need to make any decision in the near future. But obviously, when we moved into Portland back in 2013, we have discussed optionality. So there are deadlines, but it's less for us, more for the minorities. Thank you.
We will now take a question from agent de Saint Hilaire of Bank of America.
Yes, good morning, everyone. And I've got 3 questions on my end. First of all, in the U. S, we've seen broadcasters getting together, building consolidation in an attempt to fend off Netflix and Amazon. Would you imagine that the same thing could happen in Europe in the second half of twenty eighteen or perhaps twenty nineteen, so pan European consolidation?
That's the first question. The second question is, again, given the developments in the markets, do you feel that regulators in your main markets are getting more sympathetic to the idea of broadcasters in general and to their fate? And lastly, Bert, I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks that international drama revenues should be more than 20% of revenues in 2019. Does that give you confidence and visibility that Fremantle can grow organically perhaps by another 4% to 7% in 2019 as you're guiding to in 2018?
Yes. Okay. Maybe your first question on the U. S. Consolidation of broadcasters.
It's we on that side, we basically see an increased consolidation in the U. S. Markets, which might actually also have an impact in the European setting, although I expect the consolidation in the European setting to be more difficult as the synergies will be more limited than compared to the U. S. Markets.
So there might be some cooperations, but the consolidation wave as currently seen in the U. S, I would find it difficult to see similar trends and to a similar level in the European landscape. Secondly, on the regulators, bear in mind that we are really very forceful in talking to the regulators that they need to redefine their current market definitions going forward in order to open up for media companies in the European landscape to be open for more partnerships and consolidation options going forward. I think we are not there yet, but I think we will have a continuous dialogue with the local and European regulators in order to prepare the ground for that as this, I think, is a very important long term strategic priority that we need to realize. And to get back on your third question on Fremantle and the expected organic growth, I would feel comfortable on an organic growth trajectory of the 4% to 6% mentioned, subject obviously to foreign exchange impacts.
But if you carve that out, 4% to 6% growth could be a realistic target if you look at the current lineup of our scripted efforts.
Thank you, Bert. And just to be clear, I was referring to 2019, so 4% to 6% for 2019?
Exactly.
Yes. Okay. Very good. Thank you so much.
We will now take a question from Laurie Davison of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. First question is just on the profitability of VideoLAN and TV now.
Can you just give
us some idea of the level of investment there in Second question
is just
Second question is just on the investments there and whether that rules out exceptional dividends, at least for the next 1 to 2 years, assuming we don't see any marked advertising growth from here. So the balance between investment and exceptional dividends would be interesting to hear. And then lastly, third question, we're seeing CPM rises on the back of these linear viewing declines. The message from Holland seems reasonably encouraging in terms of your ability to put through prices. But elsewhere, I'm conscious that France and Spain and the U.
K. Is becoming increasingly hard to put through or messaging has been increasingly hard to put through further price rises on linear. Just give us your views on how much further linear CPM price rises can go? Thanks.
Thank you for the questions. Let me take the first one. We are increasing substantially increasing our investments in the VOD space, and we will scale out that business significantly in the years to come, also increasingly by investing into local exclusive content. Right now, for us, it's we would not like to disclose any details on that, but we have internal discussions that as of 2020 or in the second half of twenty nineteen, we should have more visibility on reporting the details of that. The impacts of the scale up and investments for 2018 will be limited.
And also in the second half, while scaling up the activity significantly, the P and L impact will be limited. Maybe, Elmer, on the dividend. Yes. I think there's one important assumption that we need to basically take for granted. As long as our business activities will continue to operate in robust market environment, So as long as we can continue to enjoy the strong profitability of our core business, I don't see a direct link between the investments that we intend to do and the dividend policy.
There should be no or a very minor impact on the dividend going forward. But obviously, the necessity is that we continue to operate in a strong macroeconomic environment comparable to the one that we have seen in the recent past. Yes. And to make up to pick up on the TPM development with the reference made to the Dutch landscape specifically, I think the ability on our side to raise prices in the Dutch markets reiterates in itself the power of TV, even for a lot of new clients that using TV has in order to scale up and grow their business is an potential is really a crucial and key market tool to grow the business going forward. What you will see in some of the European markets is that the sellout ratio of our inventory is actually increasing.
So the scarcity of the TV CPM or DRP inventory is increasing. And as a consequence, we've been pushing up prices significantly in the Dutch landscape, which is a trend that we've seen in the U. S. Market for many, many years to come. And obviously, the big word is still out there where we can apply that same model to some other European markets, but it's definitely part of our pricing policy going forward to get premium pricing for our premium long term content.
Okay. Just on the exceptional dividend then prospects for this year. I mean, given that you're talking about revenue growth and EBITDA growth, will an exceptional dividend be considered this year? And just following up on the CPM development, sure the progress so far has been quite good in terms of raising price in Europe and in Holland. But obviously, we're starting to see that tail off in markets like Sweden, France, Spain and U.
K. So is there any feeling for you? Or have you done any work on exactly how far you can push CPMs, linear CPMs, that is?
Well, I think there's no general guidance to be given. It's very market specific and very demand specific driven. So as I stated, we are very much aware of the premium product that we offer to our advertising clients. And increasingly, even media agencies see the value of TV in combination with digital exposure. So this premium pricing is something we will continue to capture and nurture in all the offers that we bring forward.
But I would find it difficult to give a kind of general statement for a lot of pan European markets because the developments are so specific that it's very difficult to have a general direction and response to that question. And just on the extraordinary dividend, Laurie, that you were referring to, I think that our dividend policy is very clear. The ordinary dividend is always between 50% and 70 6% 75% of the adjusted net result. And there's a second target that we pursue, and that is to make sure that we continue to operate at a gearing of 0.5 to 1x net debt to EBITDA. Now we will continue to exploit all means to grow the company organically, but at the same time, we always have an open eye for accretive M and A.
And our ability to potentially pay a special dividend among others will also depend to what extent we use money to further acquire assets for the growth of our portfolio. It's a bit too early, therefore, to give you a final solution. And here, we'll continue to discuss it with the Board. But it is very clear that once we will have cash that we will not be able to invest, we'll do what we did in prior years, I. E, we will return it to the shareholders.
Understood. All right. Thank you.
We will now take a question from Conor O'Shea of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Few questions from my side as well. First question just on the digital growth acceleration. You mentioned in the press release that part of the growth related to the consolidated first time consolidation of United Screens. I wonder if you could call out the amount revenue impact of that.
And also, I think you commented on improvement in terms of growth at SPOTEX. Wondering if you could comment on style haul, actually, it's down double digit in Q1, if trends have improved there at all. Secondly, in terms of the guidance, the overall guidance of around flat EBITDA on a group basis versus growth of around 2% in the first half. I just wonder if you could clarify whether there were any one offs in the first half that might have boosted EBITDA? And equally, if there were any one offs boosting EBITDA in the second half of last year, if you could just remind us of that.
And then the last question just in terms of advertising spend. I understand your comments on limited visibility as usual, which is fine. Just wondering if you've seen any change in trend in spend from the auto sector in any of your major markets? Obviously, we've seen a number of profit warnings from some of the major manufacturers, mainly U. S.
Players, but with global exposure. So if you could comment on that, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Yes, Coram, very briefly on the digital revenue growth. So we communicated a growth of 9% on a reported basis €224,000,000 for the first half. Digital revenue now represents around 14% of total revenue. I can tell you that if we had not had the headwinds coming from ForEx, we would have been able to report a double digit growth rate for digital revenue for the first half. And the scope change that was basically provoked by the first time condensation of United Squeeze, but not very significant because it's not a big business, as we already described earlier.
So it is a high mid single digit a high single digit figure that we've been able to add to the digital revenue line in the first
half. There are currently no further questions.
Sorry, I just had a Sorry, I'm sorry, you did. My apologies.
And the second question, Conor, was there any one off in EBITDA, yes?
Yes. No. Neither for the first half of this year or the second half of last year.
Second half of last year? Well, obviously, the sale of the building in Paris that occurred in the Q4. Other than this, in the first half, there was nothing. 1st half 'eighteen, nothing. First half of 'seventeen, there was also the reimbursement of tax in Hungary.
But Conor was asking for the second half? Yes. It was just the building. Just the
building. Okay.
Okay. And can you remind us of
the amount that was in Q4 last
€94,000,000
Okay. Perfect. Okay. And on the auto sector, in terms of any changing patterns of ad spend there?
Not that we are aware of based on our current talks with agencies and advertisers. No insights.
Okay, great. And just a very final thing. On Stylehall, any change in terms of the revenue pattern there in the second quarter? Any improvement on that?
Absolutely. It was a definite improvement. If we look at it on a euro basis, so even with the FX headwinds, they were basically down just 1% or 2% in the second quarter, which is a significant improvement over Q1, obviously. Okay.
Thank you. Thanks guys.
We will now take a question from Adam Berlin of UBS. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. I understand that there was no profit contribution from the 1st season of American Idol on ABC, and you announced today that you renewed it for the 2nd season. Will we start to see a positive profit contribution from American Idol going forward now that the first season has been somewhat of a success?
Yes, Adam, we can confirm that because what's important for us is not only to get it back on air for a single season, but to make sure that it finds its audience. It did well on ABC. I think that the broadcaster was extremely pleased with the results and thus extended the format into the next season. And like in prior exercise, there's always an additional degree of profitability available once that you've been recommissioned. So yes, we expect this format to increase in its profitability in the second season on ABC.
Thank you very much.
We will now take a follow-up question from Julien Roche of Barclays. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi there. Quick follow-up. Could we get the subscriber numbers at TV Now and Video then? Can you give us growth rate, but we don't know what the base is?
Yes. So far, we've decided not to disclose that to the markets. So we will stick to the growth rates we have reported. But we're internally discussing what would be the appropriate timing to become more to disclose these
We
Given that there are no more questions, I would like to say thank you very much, everyone, for having joined the call today. Obviously, if you have any more questions, you can contact me today, tomorrow, rest of the week, whenever. And obviously, as a management team, we look forward to speaking in conferences over the next few months, but also around the Q3 results, which will be in early November. Thanks once again. Have a good day, and thank you to our speakers, Bert and Elemer.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now