Bertelsmann Posts Record Full-Year Profit Despite Flat Revenue

German media giant Bertelsmann booked record profits for 2023, recording a 25 percent jump in group profits to €1.3 billion ($1.43 billion), the company reported on Tuesday. Operating revenue was flat at €20.2 billion ($22.2 billion), just short of the record figure recorded by the company in 2022.

Bertelsmann’s one-off sale of its shares in digital business services company Majorel to market
leader Teleperformance for just over $1 billion helped keep profits up while several of the company’s core media operations, particularly the free-TV business of its broadcasting subsidiary RTL, look shaky.

The company is in the midst of a major transformation of its television business, investing heavily in original production through its subsidiary Fremantle and expanding its subscription streaming services in Germany, France and Hungary to counter falling TV ad sales.

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe highlighted success at Fremantle, which has been on a buying spree as its aims to hit the target of €3 billion ($3.25 billion) in annual revenue, pointing out the four Oscars won by Yorgos Lantimos’ feature Poor Things, produced by Fremantle-owned Element Pictures.

On the streaming side, SVOD services RTL+ in Germany and Hungary and M6+ in France racked up at total of 5.6 million paying subscribers in 2023, a 31 percent year-on-year jump, though the start-up operations are still money losers.

And while Bertelsmann’s attempt to merge its publishing arm, Penguin Random House, with Paramount Global-owned rival Simon & Schuster, was blocked by antitrust authorities in 2022, Bertelsmann did manage to increase its stake in U.S. publisher Sourcebooks to 53 percent last year and snatched up the publishing assets of U.S. nonfiction publisher Callisto Media.

On the music side, Bertelsmann’s music subsidiary BMG continued to grow its song catalog, taking a stake in Paul Simon’s royalty income from his Simon and Garfunkel recordings and acquiring the song catalog of the British rock and pop band The Hollies.

Rabe is doubling down on his expansion/acquisition strategy, with planned investments set to hit €5 billion to €7 billion ($5.4 billion-$7.6 billion) by 2026. For this year, Bertelsmann said it expected “a moderate increase in revenue and earnings in our continuing operations” with group revenues for 2026 forecast to hit €21 billion ($23 billion) and adjusted operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of around €3.4 billion ($3.7 billion).

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