RTL Group CEO Thomas Rabe
This morning’s full year earnings from European broadcaster RTL Group in some ways tell a very familiar story. Total group revenues were down year-on-year, falling 3.8 percent to €6.02 billion. Tough market conditions dented TV ad revenues, as linear ad spend in RTL’s markets fell. And while digital revenues grew, they didn’t grow fast enough to counterbalance the linear decline.
But the media giant says an inflection point is on the horizon. After years of investment, RTL says its overall streaming business came close to profitability at the end of 2025, and is expected to tip into the black this year. Total group revenues meanwhile are predicted to return to growth, pegged at between €6.1 and €6.2 billion this year (ignoring the impact of any completed M&A).
With streaming now positioned to drive future growth, and RTL’s German business set to be boosted by the acquisition of Sky Deutschland later this year, the company says it is now well set for years of sustainable profit growth.
Targets (mostly) met
As was the case for many broadcasters, the pandemic and the ensuing streaming wars moved streaming up RTL’s list of priorities. At the end of 2021, it laid out some ambitious targets for its streaming arm for 2026: to hit 10 million paying subscribers, to generate €1 billion in revenues, and to reach profitability.
Following the sale of RTL Nederland, including its streaming service Videoland, new goals were set, of 9 million subscribers, and €750 million in revenues in 2026. The profitability target remained unchanged.
RTL looks on course to meet at least two of these goals. Across its various streaming services, the broadcaster reached a total subscriber count of 8.06 million in 2025, up from 6.76 million in the prior year. The company’s current projections expect this figure to land at roughly 9 million by the end of the year. As already mentioned, profitability is also forecasted at some point in the coming months.
In terms of revenues, RTL expects to fall short of those previous targets. Total streaming revenues last year reached €517 million — a significant jump from €403 million in 2024, but not a fast enough acceleration given the aim of €750 million this year. The expectation for 2026 now sits between €600 million-€650 million.
But there were positive signs in RTL’s data. Digital ad revenues (which includes streaming ad revenues) jumped by €112 million to €517 million last year, having previously only grown by €60 million between 2020 and 2024.
And all of the above doesn’t take into account the impact of RTL’s anticipated acquisition of Sky Deutschland, which it expects will receive regulatory approval and close in the first half of this year. In Germany, the group says the combination of RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland’s streaming services will help the company leapfrog Disney in terms of its streaming subscription market share, sitting in third place behind Netflix and Prime Video. That scale should help boost ad sales, offering more scale overall to marketers.
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