TF1 SA (TFI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the TF1 Group conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Gilles Pelisson, CEO; and Philippe Denery, CFO. Gentlemen, please go ahead.

Good morning to all of you. I'm very happy to share with you these very good results of our first year 2021, following a very nontypical 2020. The presentation will be in 3 parts: coming back on the highlights of this first semester and the activity review; then, going over with Philippe on the financial results; and then, sharing the growth perspective that we see ahead of us. First of all, we have decided to adapt our presentation and merge the digital activity following some reorganization within the group that I wish to do to bring together the ad sales activity of Unify closer to our main ad sales team, meaning for that, that the digital activities under Unify would merge into what is now called the media part of the group, so the media entity, and rename the whole thing, Media. It's based in -- first of all, in line of the growing synergies that we wish to have between what used to be Broadcasting and the Digital segments; reflects the organizational changes, which we announced on June 23. It also reflects the fact that in the former Studio & Entertainment part, with the disposal of the Games allowed us to move back the music activity into Media. And then I guess it will give you a better visibility on Newen's performance and expansion, and especially, as we move forward, expanding Newen on an international basis. You know that they are already operating in 7 countries. So along those lines, going back to the highlights and activity review of this first half of the year. It has been a very busy first half of the year. As you may see on this chart with some calendar fragmentation. Started, of course, with the acquisition of Fictionhouse, building up on Ringside Studio that we had acquired earlier. It gives us a foot for Newen into the U.K. market. And we do believe that it is very, very strategic and important to be a player in that part of the -- of Europe. Then it was the disposal of the Games. Then it was the acquisition in Spain of our first studio, that is, iZen, a major player in Spain with the El Cid fiction series, which is on Amazon Prime, followed by Kubik, which was also a minority shareholding that we took in this Spanish studio. HPI, which has been the blockbuster in France on TF1 with 12.4 million viewers, and we will come back on that. Then of course, in mid-May was the announcement of our project emerging with the M6 Group, followed by the Euro, which, as you know, we shared with the M6 Group in terms of broadcasting. We were -- if -- the French team was not exactly where we expect it to be. Nevertheless, we managed to have with the split of the games, a fairly good share or lion's share in the split with 3 games of the French team, which are, of course, meaning higher ratings. Then it was aufeminin, which the whole portal was revamped. We revamped and, I think, in a very positive manner. And then, of course, at the end of June, the announcement that the A+E, the American Media Group, a subsidiary of Disney and Hertz, would take 35% ownership of Reel One, which is our Canadian subsidiary, specializing in TV movies and which is a very good and strong signal of trust and confidence for the future as they are also a major client of Reel One. So we were looking forward to this association, and seeing it coming through is really an excellent news on the Newen part. Coming back on the Media. In terms of the duration of time for the viewing, we -- when we merged the video approach into a global approach, of course, there is the linear consumption, which still remains fairly high in France at 3 hours and 45 minutes for the whole population, so older than 4 years old. It is a 17-minutes addition to '19 when 2020 was kind of very nontypical in terms of viewership, and which was, of course, at the maximum level of 4 hours. So it's a little bit less, but nevertheless, it's a plus versus '19. So it's very encouraging for us. Of course, on the online videos side, the -- it is still progressing. And you will see that MYTF1, we are having very good results. But nevertheless, overall, it is 52 minutes. It is a 14-minute progression versus '19. And then when you talk about SVOD, and you know that with Salto, we are also very concerned with SVOD from now on. It is 2 hours and 19 minutes per subscriber. Of course, when you put it on a broader base of the population base, it's 31 minutes. But it's nevertheless 35% increase, which means that this is where people are moving, and especially, the younger audience. Coming back on our ratings. The group is posting very strong results with -- as a group, for women under 50, 33.5%, which is a 1.6 increase over 2020, but more encouraging is 0.8 against '19. So for us, this is really the significant -- the results showing how much the multichannel approach that we have picked to do at the TF1 Group is working out. By that, I mean, of course, a strong TF1, which remains, of course, the main focus of our activity, but posting 22.5% on the first semester. This is definitely a unique phenomenon in Europe as a channel with still a 50% advantage versus M6, which is the main private competitor. And where we are fairly -- quite pleased with our situation at the end of first half 2021 is, of course, that TMC and TFX are progressing both as you can see on this chart at 4.7% and 3.6%. So these are very, very encouraging results, which we wanted to share with you this morning. And LCI, the all news channel, at 1.5, which is also very encouraging. On the 25/49 target, very good performance as well. As you see, 30.5%. This is 0.9 points higher than 2020, but it's also 0.9 higher than '19. So here, too, major progress boosted by TF1. TF1 at 20.6% is definitely a major player on the younger audience, which is typically not recognized in the market. TMC performing extremely well with plus 0.6%, and then TFX at 2.8%. Moving to what makes -- what is behind this success and this very high performance and exceptional performance. As you know, we have chosen to be targeting at multi-genre activity, meaning by that, that we want to remain the leader, a very strong leader on news. But the bulk of our activities, of course, on prime-time, what is amazing in the first half of 2021 is that we posted 45 prime-times over 6 million viewers in France. This is a progress when you compare it to '19 of 24 prime-times more than '19, which is just amazing. So we are very, very pleased, and this is due to -- of course, a little bit sports with the Euro, but that came at the very end of the semester; the French fiction, and especially, series like HPI has been a booster. Entertainment with Koh-Lanta, with The Voice is very strong -- has been very strong. And then, of course, our access prime time where we thought, totally, our access is paying off with those very good ratings. At the end of the day, what that means is that the announcers are following and kind of love it. They are gradually coming back, as you can see, on this chart. You're seeing the progress between the first quarter and the second quarter of 2021. If we were at -- the first quarter versus 2020 was kind of flat, and you had seen that in our previous results. Of course, there was definitely an acceleration in second quarter. Of course, the results of last year were very, very low, but it's a 72% acceleration in terms of broadcasting, advertising revenue. The -- let's say, the industries which are still affected at the end of the quarter are still a little bit of food, even if they are coming back; cosmetics; the car industry, which is kind of in recess; of course, travel and tourism has not recovered at full speed, even if we are seeing more and more advertisement as the summer came for traveling and traveling in France or traveling abroad; and then, of course, health and utilities are a little bit back. But the ones which are fully recovered are retail, the telcos, finance, culture, leisure, beverages, textile, clothing, household, cleaning, others. Meaning by others also a lot of Internet activity, a lot of Internet player, what we call cube players, which are taking a lot of advantage of TV advertisement. Of course, our ad sales is ready to benefit from this recovery, and we are -- we have an ambition, positioning our offers to seize these opportunities. It starts with synergies in ad campaigns, and we want to develop that, and the new organization which facilitate such a goal. So it is -- having this offer on TF1 and Unify, which, of course, will convince further in our fight against Google, against Facebook and Digital. That you can combine the best of TF1 and Unify. Ad'vise, which is a product, of course, recommended by a TF1 digital brand like Marmiton, but on TF1 channel, enabling a retailer like Lidl to have the best of both. It is expanding the customer base. And as you know, Addressable TV has been authorized in France. We are trying to take advantage of this as much as we can with partnership with Orange and Bouygues Telecom, which are the first partners to -- with which we have developed the technological tools to facilitate it. We are very, very early in the game. But nevertheless, we are seeing the first campaign with the local advertisers. And to boost the sales, we have partnered with one of the leading e-commerce sites in France, Leboncoin to benefit from their sales force team and try to get to the smaller announcers that they are going after. And therefore, without initiating our own sales force, we want to capitalize on that partnership. And then finally, as we are heavily committed in terms of sustainability and wanted to be the leader in that field, our ad sales team organized a campus dedicated to eco-responsibility. And then we took the initiative to launch an eco-funding, meaning by that, that whenever you will have in an ad, the logo of a standard or something which has been verified, proved and guaranteed, I guess, by some of the certified environmental institution. Whenever this advertiser will post that in his advertisement, meaning by that, that saying to the consumer, yes, you can trust my product, then this kind of announcement -- this kind of advertising will be participating to an eco-funding. So we will give free time on our channels to advertisement, to those advertisers quoting them, giving them credit for doing that. So it will be good initiative, positive, and I think, it is our role as a leader to, of course, enforce that. On the ESG commitments, of course, it is at the group -- the heart of the group strategy. We just wanted to particularly emphasize the fact that we obtained a C+ rating from ISS-ESG, achieving prime status within the media sector. And then for the rest, through our contents, we are heavily committed to promote, encourage a more sustainable and inclusive society. It is through the channel Ushuaïa, which is preserving, of course, the environment. Our news team has put together with Expertes à la Une. It means addressing women of -- in society in the corporate or in institutional work, giving them the possibility by coaching and sponsoring them from even our anchor of people like Anne-Claire Coudray or Gilles Bouleau, sponsoring individually per -- 15 women to give them the possibility of expressing themselves on television with -- at ease and giving them confidence by coaching them. And then Newen is heavily committed on having eco-production in all their production, and particularly, having a test lab with Plus belle la vie, which is one of the productions they do on a daily basis for France Television. Regarding MYTF1 online content, we have an enlarged business model relying on solid brands and strong reach. We were happy to see that the -- all the work which has been done on MYTF1 is now becoming a reality and getting a lot of credit. We posted an increase of 21%. Of course, very strong boost, thanks to the, of course, the good performance of some programs like HPI, La Promesse or Koh-Lanta. But meaning by that, that we have also very strong ad revenue as advertisers see, of course, the interest of having a mix between linear, nonlinear television, and going digital with MYTF1. So we are posting plus 52% on 2020, which is really very encouraging. And then on the online reach, of course, Marmiton, Doctissimo keep delivering very strong numbers at the end of the semester. And then, of course, more and more, we are encouraging editorial collaboration between, for example, our access prime time daily show, Ici Tout Commence, which is in a cooking school with a program like Marmiton. Moving to Newen Studios. It's all about expansion and growth. Here, we wanted to emphasize the fact that we have been able to seize some opportunities in very dynamic markets. I mentioned already the A+E shareholding into Reel One, which we do believe is a very strong plus for the future. And then, of course, taking a solid position in the Spanish-speaking world, as you know, since Casa de papel and what Netflix has been doing in Spain, I think, everybody has become aware of the potential of Spanish production houses. We wanted to have -- to set foot in Spain, and it is done through iZen and through Kubik. So we are very, very excited about this association. At the end of the day, it means that international revenues represent already 40% of the total of Newen. Meaning, knowing that in France, we have also part of the sales team, which makes the French revenues a little bit higher, but we -- our goal is to go 50-50 on between international and France. Of course, the name of the game on looking forward is partnering with platforms on high value-added formats. We see new opportunities in France, in the U.K., Spain and Belgium. In the U.K. with Ringside Studio and Gub Neal who came from Endemol in association with the French product -- producer, Leonis Productions, we were able to convince Apple TV+ to give to Newen the first production that they are doing in Europe between France and England called Liaison, with Vincent Cassel and Eva Green. So it will be a very high profile. It's a mini series. And we do believe that it's a very significant move for Newen in the international scene as a major producer. With Netflix, 2 significant projects. One, through our Dutch-speaking Belgium Studio, De Mensen, with Diamonds, which will be all about what is going on in the diamond world and in weapons, and a very nice series, which is an 8-part crime drama, which will be launched on Netflix. And then Insiders, which is iZen, so the Spanish new entity, obtaining this reality show in kind of a big brother style. This is what's going on in this first half of the year through our various activities. And I will now leave the floor to Philippe for the financial results.

Thank you, Gilles. I will start by giving a few more explanation regarding our presentation, for which you have a detailed description on the slides and on our website as well. As Gilles has already explained, this new organization reflects growing synergies between television and digital activities. Our TV and Digital business today operate in a converging market. On the commercial side, we have developed combined offers for our advertisers, which for most part of them are the same between our channel and our website. Market measures and fares are also gradually converging. And in addition, I would say that data offers for TV sports are a good example of technological cooperation between our 2 businesses. In terms of content, we see a lot of potential to share our programs and maximize traffic as it has already been the case between Marmiton and TF1 with Ici Tout Commence or Doctissimo and TF1 on this specific segment. By combining our TV and Digital business into a new Media sector, with us, make way to create even more value and more synergies for our clients. Other reallocation of business to better reflect internal touch point and governance, music and entertainment activities are also integrated in the media sector. And as a result, Newen Studios' performance will be made more visible. Since '16, we have developed our production and distribution business segment, namely through acquisition of studio abroad. Today, this business is present in 7 countries and shows a lot of potential, both from a synergetic point of view as our different studios are working to gather more and more and cooperate, but also from a business point of view with a growing partnership with SVOD platform. Our new sector presentation will help better reflect this. More especially, from this semester onwards, all figures will be presented according to those 2 sectors. The first one, Media, will include revenues from our TV and Digital business. For this segment, digital and ad revenues will be identified within total advertising revenues and other revenues will include revenues from services, distribution, music, events, licensing and social e-commerce. For the second one, Newen Studios, we will provide detailed figures for France and international revenues. As a way to facilitate your analysis, 2020 pro forma data will be provided in our 2021 financial statements. Now moving to our results. I will start commenting on the H1 2021 revenues for the TF1 Group. Consolidated revenues of TF1 Group stand at EUR 1.128.7 billion, up by EUR 245 million year-on-year, close to the level of '19. Revenues for the Media segment are up by EUR 198 million year-on-year. This reflects a 30.5% increase in advertising revenues. That's to say EUR 187.4 million year-on-year. This figure benefits from a favorable basis of comparison versus last year, which was marked by the impact of the first lockdown. Some sectors such as leisure, culture or clothing have come back. They even increased their spending versus '19. Digital ad revenues are up by EUR 10.4 million due to increased revenues from the replay platform MYTF1, which delivered a very good performance, as Gilles has already explained during this first half year. Website ad revenues are slightly down versus last year, due to limited performance on our international business. Ad revenues are up on the French market. The other revenues within the Media segment are up by EUR 11 million year-on-year. This comes from a better activity versus last year in advertising services such as Ykone and Gamned as well as growing revenues from our e-commerce offers. Interactivity is flat with a high basis of comparison last year in the context of lockdown. Moving on to Newen Studios, revenues are up by EUR 46.9 million year-on-year. During the first half year '20, activity was impacted, as you remember, by the interruption of shooting. Newen Studios activity benefited this semester from a favorable basis of comparison and higher deliveries. International revenues stand at the EUR 56.5 million, up by 54% versus last year. In the context of growing revenues, Newen's international activities had -- has stood up its share of 40% of total revenues of this segment. Regarding programming costs for H1 '21, they amounted to EUR 466 million versus EUR 355 million in H1 '20. They are up by EUR 111 million versus last year. As we had the opportunity to express before, we have started investing again in H1 '21 in order to increase our ratings and create value for our advertisers. Programming costs are thus back to '19 level, when they stood at close to EUR 460 million. To give you more details, we broadcasted some French soccer team games in H1 as well as the Euro football '20 for a total cost of EUR 40 million compared to no significant sport cost last year when competitions were postponed due to the COVID. In order to benefit from the demand on the ad market, we -- and to increase our rating, we have also invested in French series in H1 such as HPI, Le remplaçant, La Promesse. And this led to a cost increase of EUR 50 million versus last year, some of which comes from higher depreciation in line with more deliveries versus last year and even more delivery compared to what we normally have during the 6 first months of a year. Current operating profit amount to EUR 169 million, up by EUR 101 million, leading to a margin rate of 15%, showing the group ability to bounce back from the COVID-19 crisis. It is in line with the H1 '19 level of profitability. If we now look into the different segments, the current operating profit for the Media segment stands at EUR 147 million, up by EUR 76.6 million year-on-year, leading to a current operating margin rate of 15%. The margin rate is up by 6 points versus last year. The current operating profit for the Media segment takes into account EUR 21 million amount of one-off tax benefits, but which has the counterpart in our P&L for an amount of amortization and depreciation, as already mentioned, which is higher than normally. There, we have more than EUR 50 million increase compared to last year or even '19 on a one-off level of delivery of French drama during those 6 months. Since we kept investing last year in production in '20. Newen Studios posted a current operating profit of EUR 21.7 million, up by EUR 24.7 million year-on-year, and the current operating margin rate of 15%, which reflects the resumption of Newen activity after the interruption of shooting during H1 last year. On the consolidated income statement, I've already commented on the consolidated revenues and the cost of programs and the current operating profit per segment. Other charges, depreciation, amortization and provision are up by EUR 33 million in H1, explained by noncurrent savings on general expenses due to COVID-19 last year and a high level of depreciation, amortization, as already explained. Nonrecurrent expenses linked with the TF1-M6 merger project are recognized in our accounts for the amount of EUR 2.4 million for this first half year. Share of losses of associates stands at EUR 13.4 million, down by EUR 12 million, explained by the investment in the Salto platform. The net profit attributable to the group stands positive at EUR 108 million for H1 '21, up by EUR 70 million, in line with the increase of the revenues and the current operating profits. On the balance sheet, nothing very special to comment at the group level at the end of June '21. Shareholders' equity attributable to the group was EUR 1.626 billion at end of June '21 out of a balance sheet total of EUR 3.540 billion. The group reported a net cash positive of EUR 34 million at end of June '21. And as you know, the group has a sound financial position with low debt and access to available bilateral credit facilities around EUR 1 billion. If we look at the trend in the cash position during this half year, closing net debt stand, as already mentioned, EUR 34 million at the end of June. The operating cash flow is up by EUR 300 million, which reflects the improvement of our business and our results in H1 '21 compared to H1 '20. The negative figure of EUR 63 million in our change in operating working capital is mainly linked with the increase in trade receivables due to a higher level of activity and higher inventories in the Newen Studios segment. The level of net capital expenditure is up by EUR 8 million explained mainly by higher investment in Newen linked with the increase in the activity in H1 as usual and the development of the productions. The level of Salto shareholders' loans and dividends is down by EUR 66.7 million, mainly linked to the '21 -- 2020 dividends payment of EUR 94 million, EUR 95 million and a reduction of shareholder loans level. I will pass the floor to Gilles, who will give more flavor on the 2021 full year perspective.

Thank you, Philippe. Yes. Following this very good and strong results from the first half, we believe that, especially for the last quarter, the best remains to come. We have a very powerful back-to-school lineup, both in fiction and entertainment. Starting with entertainment, you -- we will have a very special end of the year with The Voice with an All Stars casting, which should generate a lot of interest. Koh-Lanta with the Legends, where we brought back some of the participants, the best one for over the last 20 participations. Mask Singer will come back after 2 years not being on the screen. Danse with the Stars will be back. And then we will celebrate also the 20 years of Star Academy, if you -- through a couple of prime times. So these will be combined with a very strong lineup in terms of societal and contemporary fiction. It is very important for us, as you know, to feature issues. So not only comedies, and you have a couple of comedies here like Le remplaçant, which is a professor fairly cranky to replacing, for a while, a full professor in a generation and creating a lot of problem with Joey Starr, which is one of the major actor in that kind of range. So a very interesting proposition. The first season went very -- the first unit was very well accepted. So we are coming back with some new additions. Belle, Belle, Belle will be also the French adaptation of a U.S. comedy, I Feel Pretty, which we expect a lot. And then some more societal commitments. One is Il est Elle, which is about -- a drama about the story of a young boy who feels like a girl in a male body and the evolution during his teenage years, and of course, how his parents may react to his announcement and to his willingness to change s**. So we are trying to feature those issues on new territories. It has been very successful in the past, and we do believe that, that's one way of maintaining our leadership. On the all news channel, LCI, as we saw that CNEWS was, of course, progressing in France throughout the year 2020 and 2021, necessity to revamp LCI with a new dynamic. We reinforced the programming structure. We have new morning show. We will have a new access and prime time show with new journalists coming from BFM, from various parts of the television spectrum. And then new visual identity, new studio. So all combined, I think we will be ready for the presidential race, which, of course, will officially start. It has already a little bit started with a few announcements, but we want to be part of that game and be a major player in it. And of course, this starts as early as September 2021. Revamping of the first soap that we put in access prime time, Demain nous appartient, already 4 years ago. So with new sets, new characters, new cast, new theme song with Vianney, with a young French singer, well known to the younger public. So I think all in all, here, too, we will capitalize on the success of Ici Tout Commence, which is the second soap that we introduced 2 years ago and give a new dynamic to Demain nous appartient. In terms of growth perspective, looking forward, on the media side, it's all about strengthening our total video approach both in content, and of course, marketing with a lot of offers in terms of streaming, developing synergies and creating value, as you saw, between the linear and the digital activities, and capitalizing on unique content like the fiction I mentioned. You see a few of them, Mensonges; Une affaire française, which has a movie casting, which will be an 8-episode story, which will be presented in September, October; and then, some feature movies like Le Grand Bain. Newen Studios with, of course, an increasing share of the -- coming from international players, clients, platforms, and significant increase of the book of orders of the clients. So with that, what we wanted, of course, to commit to with Philippe and the team was that in 2021, following the 15% margin on the first half committing to having, of course, a double-digit current operating profit margin for the entire year, which is coming back to our 2019 level, where we had made -- it has taken a few years to bring back TF1 at that level. Finally, one word on the proposed merger. As you know, we are in the middle of it now, initiating the process once the announcement was made. Of course, the ambition is very much at the top to make the process happen and a successful one. The whole idea of this is being to -- that the new media group is ready to master the challenges of the total video market, benefiting to all viewers, and especially, the French audiovisual industry. We just signed a major agreement at the TF1 Group with the French producers in movies. So this is capitalizing on our knowledge of the industry and the good relationship we have with them. Strong commitment to creativity, diversity, pluralism of opinion regarding, of course, a news team promoting French and European culture, which we think is important given the legacy that we have on -- in the French history. French streaming champion, combining, of course, catch-up, and you have seen that with MYTF1, but of course, his play is very strong on the M6 side and live streaming offer and SVOD offer. The closing is expected, as we had announced earlier, at the end of 2022. So it's a very long process, unfortunately, but that's the way it's done in France, and there is nothing we can do about it. And of course, it is just our collaboration with the French authorities such as the antitrust authorities and the CSA, which will allow the process to take place in the best possible situation. And of course, the good news was that on July 8, both Bouygues and RTL, the 2 major shareholders, were able to announce the signing of the agreement after the approval of our mutual employee representative bodies, whether it was at Bouygues or TF1 or M6. So this being said, I think we are ready now to answer your questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We have a first question from Annick Maas from Exane BNP Paribas.

So first of all, it would be great if we could get a bit more detail around the TV advertising performance in June -- sorry, in July, August and what you know so far? Secondly, you suggested that H1 and studios performed among others quite well because of early deliveries. Do we assume from that, that maybe H2 might be slightly weaker? Then you gave this slide where you showed which factors have recovered. I'd be quite keen to see what share of your advertisers is now made up by e-commerce firms? And then finally, you suggested that in Addressable TV, it's mostly local advertisers that have used the function so far. First of all, can you maybe tell us a bit more about these advertisers? And also, do you have any stats or return on investment KPIs to show us how aggressively TV has delivered so far?

So the first question on July and August. We see -- these are small months for us. But we see, because we are at the end of it, a good month of July. And the month of August where the comparable is a little bit stronger because we had a strong month of last year in August for a lot of reasons, but also in a good trend. Less visibility, of course, on September. But as we see the economy coming back, and as I mentioned earlier, most announcers coming back, especially the consumer goods announcers, we feel fairly confident on the end of the year. The second question was the studio performance in H2? Do you want to comment?

Well, I would say that in H1, we had a very good performance, but that should go on in H2. Activity for the studio segment is good, and the demand is quite strong. We have a level of book of order, which stand at a high level, 1,500 hours for the book of orders. So we expect this performance to go on for the whole year. Regarding your third question, I think that the pure player, as we call them, advertising clients, represent around 10% of the total revenues, basically. So in terms of range, that's -- and they are up for the last 18 months in terms of what they invest. And I think, that you had another question?

Yes. It was on Addressable TV, I guess. If I understood well, well, your question was about more -- knowing more about the local advertising. It's very early in the game. So it's -- we have about 60 campaigns, I think, which have been put together. Leboncoin is, of course, enabling us. We'll be able -- it hasn't started yet. So it will enable us to accelerate. We see both national announcers wanted to test it, and then local advertisers going for it because it enables you to create regional advertisement, more targeted by definition advertisement. And as we see more and more with Orange, as a distributor, and Bouygues Telecom coming on board, I think we will know more in a few months. But at this stage, it's very early.

And regarding your question in terms of sectors, which recovered as compared to Q1, I would say that during Q2, we had specifically, of course, culture and leisures. Those 2 sectors are coming back, which is a good news, even limited. Nevertheless, they were still affected in Q1, and we see them in Q2 as well as all the clothing, textile sector, which is back, which is, as well, improving as compared to Q1.

We have a next question from Conor O'Shea from Kepler Cheuvreux.

So -- yes, three questions. Maybe if you just come back on the previous question on the third quarter. I think last third quarter, you did more than 8% advertising growth. Just could you remind us roughly how that 8% was a portion between, say, July, August, September, with a big step-up in growth in September, which would make this year's comp in September much more difficult? Then the second question is on programming costs. Just if you could -- if you have some thoughts about full year program costs now that we're halfway through the year, what you think -- what are your latest thoughts there are? And then just the last question on Salto. Do you just have some -- any chance of having a few more KPIs on how it's going in terms of traction with subscribers and so on? And what your sort of thoughts are 6 and 9 months into -- after launch?

Well, regarding your first question, last year, the 8.5% growth was more on August and September. August always never so -- very important, but in terms of percentage, that was more end of the quarter than beginning of the quarter because of comparison. Now considering the programming cost, I would say that you may be a bit disappointed linked with the programming cost level of H1. But I just want to remind you and insist on the fact, that is mainly due to the fact that we had more deliveries than normally we have at the end of H1, and that created our programming costs, mainly due to French drama and high level of French drama we have in our inventories and rights, and of course, broadcasting more French drama than others. I would say that is mainly due to amortization and depreciation. But programming costs are under control. It's due to a very one-off situation. And as we have already mentioned, we would -- should deliver a global programming costs between EUR 900 million and EUR 985 million, with an average will probably be depending on the high demand on advertising for -- during the year, and especially, during the last 4 months of the year. So we'll adjust our investment, September, October and November, depending on the demand and the necessity to increase inventories and good ratings when the demand on the advertising market will be there. So we will adjust depending on the situation, the last 3, 4 months of the year, but we remain with the same kind of control on programming costs and take into account the one-off situation due to the fact that we have invested in '20 even during the crisis as -- in order to support the sector, and especially, for the French drama. And we have the consequence on the P&L during H1.

On Salto, what we may say is mainly that we are well on track with the, what, I guess, as a shareholder, we expected from Salto being -- playing this role of a platform offering our content in a premier situation, which meaning that when we see HPI or La Promesse or other fiction -- French fiction that we are proposing to the public, you will have 30 days in advance of the broadcast on TF1. And so this is a terrific offer, very different, of course, from any of the American platform. So this means a lot to us as it means additional acquisition possibilities and rights, when we look now at the full value of acquiring an IP being able to allocate some of the value to Salto. So I think the 3 shareholders are very much on that line. The viewership -- duration of viewership is very much in line over 2 hours per subscribers with what the international platforms are doing. And then little by little, we are looking at the expansion of Salto, the distribution, et cetera, but we will let Salto communicate rather than us on whatever has not been communicated.

We have a following question from Christophe Cherblanc from Societe Generale.

Three questions on my side. First was on advertising. What was the mix between volume and pricing in H1 and Q2? You have indicated that TV viewing time was up, 6%, 7%, 8%, so that seems to suggest it was mostly volume. And related to that, what do you expect post the pandemic in terms of TV viewing time? And does that mean that as volume go down, neighbors go down, you will have to raise prices. And you think that -- do you think you are in a position to do that? The second one was on the state aid. I just want to make sure I understand the mechanics. So the EUR 21 million is booked as other income, and that's totally offsetting the depreciation, which is in programming costs, if I understand correctly, but I just wanted to confirm. Is there more to come in H2? And lastly, is it tax free? So is the state taxing its aid? And the last one was on Philippe presentation that I want to make sure I understand. On Newen margin, 15% was very good in H1. Is that a sustainable level for the full year and for the next few years?

Well, on the first question, during H1, we have recaptured some value in terms of pricing and mix with a stronger performance and high level of ratings, which give us opportunity to sell on a spot-by-spot and at level of pricing, which is linked with the good ratings, and especially, on prime-time. So in terms of volume price, I would say that in Q2, and especially, in Q2, we have been in capacity because of the rating and high level of ratings to price a better price than usual. So we recaptured some value in Q2. Concerning the state tax benefit, I would say that we are not saying that EUR 21 million is completely -- or put a counterpart of the amortization level. But just to give sense, we had benefit from tax credit which is tax-free, which is based on the fact that we had a loss in our revenues of more than 10% last year. As you know, the decision and the decree finally came out in April this year, even if it has been discussed during the whole 2020 year. And I'm just saying that the counterpart of it is the fact that we have supported the sector in '20. And as a consequence, having invested in '20, we have deliveries this year, which has some impact on amortization and depreciation. The level of amortization and depreciation is Q2 -- in Q2 as compared to last year is around EUR 50 million, if you take our P&L in details. So basically, it's not really a compensation. And at the end, we benefit from the programs. But in terms of comparison, I'm just saying that is the balance with the benefit of this tax we have. And that will be -- and the benefit of this tax is taken accordingly to what we broadcast in terms of content according to the rules. So there will be an additional amount, but very limited during the second half of the year, because we have not completely broadcasted what -- on what we have invested last year. So there will be an additional amount, though limited, a few millions in H2. Regarding your question of 15% sustainability, I mean, Christophe, you know very well, TF1 for long. And you know that usually and historically, Q3 was loss-making. We've made some change during the last few years, and now we are still profitable even if the margin in Q3 is limited because of the nature of the business and because of the limited amount and limited demand in July and April -- July and August, sorry, during summer. So we probably will be more in line with what we have delivered in '19 in terms of profitability than what we have delivered during H1, which is traditional for TF1 for the last few years. Now in terms of sustainability on the long term, I will not comment on it. I would say that what we have is -- in mind is that to remain now onwards with a double-digit profitability, not only in '21 but onwards.

My last question was actually just specifically on Newen, which had a 15% margin. So that was on Newen. And I think you did not answer on the pre-pandemic -- normalization of audiences to pre-pandemic level. If and when that happens, the volume will go down. So do -- will you have to raise prices as of, I don't know, '22 or '23? And do you think that you're in a position to do that?

Well, regarding Newen profitability, 15% is a high level of profitability for a production company. I think we are more between 10% to 15%. Nevertheless, we expect to keep a high level of profitability due to the level of demand in this sector. So 15% profitability for this activity is probably higher level we can expect in a normative basis. Concerning pricing...

Maybe on the pricing, I think the beauty of our current system is that we have a dynamic pricing, which is very much a yield management pricing scheme, meaning by that, that even if we have some guaranteed commitments from advertisers, some major advertisers at the beginning of the year, giving them some specific prices, we are able to monitor those prices during the year based on demand. So it is a very dynamic and volatile pricing throughout the year. So regarding -- it is a balance, not only between viewing -- the duration of viewership but it's most importantly what the ratings we deliver. And as long as we are very much into this dynamic of delivering very strong ratings on entertainment, on fiction or news, I think we have the possibility of keeping that dynamic and this yield management going on for the coming quarters.

And just to add, I think that we have 2 leverage, not only, or specifically, increasing price but we have 2 leverage in order to take into account the viewing and the level -- absolute value of ratings. First is to mix the part of the day and to be very strong on access and prime time and to deliver valuable inventories, which are sold at a price, which is, of course, higher than the day -- part of the day at a normal day part. So meaning that we may -- and we have the possibility to leverage value through the ratings, specifically on specific part of the day. And second point is that as we have improved the way we sell our inventories between what we call spot-by-spot and ratings guarantee. And so that's also on TF1 a way to leverage the value for our advertisers as a counterpart of the pricing, which could be up, but which creates more value because of the nature of the inventories.

We have a next question from Thomas Coudry from Bryan Garnier. Apologies. Mr. Coudry just hung up for the moment. We have no other questions. [Operator Instructions] Thank you.

Okay. Well, if there is no more question, we just have to wish you a very good summer and holidays. And if you need any specific need for question and information, the team is available. Well, thank you for attending this call.

Thank you. Thank you, again, and have a good summer. Bye-bye.

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's web conference. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.