Revenue slumps at Fremantle as parent RTL blames ‘challenging’ UK and US markets

Revenue fell by almost 10% at production and distribution group Fremantle in 2025, as its German parent company RTL Group blamed a decline in the TV business in the UK and US.

Thomas Rabe

RTL Group’s full-year financial report revealed revenue at Fremantle fell 9.4% to €2.04bn (US$2.35bn) last year, compared with €2.25bn in 2024.

That was despite RTL claiming that Fremantle “celebrated major creative success in 2025,” by producing content such as premium crime series Hotel Costiera (Prime Video) and The Monster of Florence (Netflix). In September, Fremantle North America also won a high-profile commission from US network Fox to reboot beach-set action series Baywatch.

Last year, Fremantle launched AI-focused label Imagine Studios and unscripted outfit Fremantle Global Originals.

RTL said Fremantle “will continue to invest significantly in IP development, small and medium-sized acquisitions of production companies with a strong IP base and in the deployment of artificial intelligence across the company’s value chain.”

Group revenue at RTL was down 3.8% at €6.01bn (€6.25bn in 2024), which the report noted was “mainly due to lower TV advertising revenue and lower content revenue from Fremantle.”

There was more positive news in digital advertising revenue, which increased by almost 27% to €517m, from €405m in 2024. The group’s streaming operations also posted good figures, with streaming revenue up 26% to €509m (2024: €403m), while the number of paying subscribers rose 19% to 8.1 million.

Total group profit doubled to €1.02bn (2024: €555m), driven by the sale of RTL Nederland for €1.1bn last year.

Thomas Rabe, CEO of RTL Group, said: “We are accelerating our transformation and positioning RTL Group for sustainable profit growth. The market environment in 2025 remained challenging, with a significant decline of TV advertising and an even faster shift from linear TV to streaming.

“Against this backdrop, RTL Group further accelerated its transformation by reallocating resources to streaming, combined with comprehensive cost reductions across our main businesses.

“Our streaming services continued to grow strongly, making RTL Group one of the leading European media companies in streaming. We exceeded eight million paying subscribers at the end of 2025. Streaming revenue and viewing time continued to grow dynamically, while streaming start-up losses came down significantly and the business was near break-even in the fourth quarter. Our streaming business will be profitable in 2026 – and will become the key driver for sustainable profit growth in the coming years.”