Please wait...
Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Group is set to launch two free TV channels next year, one aimed at older women, the other at men, as it tries to tap “high-income viewers” and boost revenue.
Announcing the plans yesterday at its Capital Markets Day in Munich, ProSiebenSat.1 said that the female-skewing Sat.1 Gold will go live in Germany on January 17, with the male-focused ProSieben Maxx (working title) to follow.
At the same time, the group said it is “directing significant focus towards the online games market,” and planned to increase its presence there through a new distribution partnership with Turkey’s Doğan Media.
It also aims to grow its ventures and commerce unit, which invests in start-ups in return for advertising time on its channels. ProSiebenSat.1 Group said its planned revenue target for its digital and venture activities is a “minimum” €435m (US$563m) by 2015.
“The company anticipates that growth will accelerate more strongly than originally expected, for reasons including expansion of the MyVideo Internet platform to an online TV channel, internationalisation of the games business and the strong ventures portfolio,” the firm said.
Outlining its overall financial aims, the group said that by 2015 it aims to increase its revenues from continuing operations “by at least €750m compared with 2010.” This includes plans to up revenue from the German-speaking broadcast market by €250m over the same period – €56m of which it has already generated.
ProSiebenSat.1 added that it expects its international TV and radio division to generate additional revenue of at least €150m by 2015 compared with 2010 – 53% of which it has already achieved. It aims to generate further revenue of €250m in its digital and adjacent segments in the same timeframe.
“We have completed the first stage on the way to our growth target for 2015 quicker than planned,” said ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Thomas Ebeling. “Television is the heart of our company. At the same time, we are moving forward with the diversification of our group by investing in new growth areas such as online games and the ventures business.”
