Fremantle revenues dropped 9.2% in the first quarter of 2024 to €395m, with parent company RTL blaming ‘timing effects’ of show deliveries in the UK, Italy and Germany for the fall.
RTL said it was confident Fremantle will make up the shortfall in the second quarter, citing the delivery of productions such as the second season of The Responder and new thriller series Nightsleeper for the BBC in the UK as well as season 19 of America’s Got Talent for NBC in the US.
The first quarter drop comes after Fremantle’s full-year 2023 turnover fell by 3.5%, leading RTL to delay by up to a year the European production and distribution group’s target to hit €3bn in revenue by 2025.
In recent months, Fremantle has added to its footprint of production labels, acquiring an 80% stake in Asian company Beach House Pictures in February and buying Asacha Media Group in March.
At this month’s Cannes Film Festival, Fremantle labels have three films in Competition: Element Pictures’ Kinds Of Kindness from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos; Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope, produced through The Apartment Pictures; and Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov, The Ballad Of Eddie, produced through Wildside.
In 2024, Fremantle labels will also deliver several films such as Queer, starring Daniel Craig, and Without Blood, directed by Angelina Jolie and starring Salma Hayek.
Overall RTL Group revenues rose 2.6% to €1.3bn in the first quarter, with the company citing “significantly higher” TV advertising revenues at Germany’s RTL Deutschland and France’s M6 and streaming revenues at RTL+ and M6+.
Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group, said: “RTL Group has started strongly and in line with our expectations into 2024. We have strengthened our leading audience and advertising positions in Germany and continued the dynamic growth of our streaming business. Our first-quarter results confirm our strategy of investing through the cycle.”
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