TF1 SA (TFI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

February 15, 2024

Euronext Paris FR Communication Services Media earnings 62 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Operator

operator
#1

Good day, and welcome to the TF1 2023 Full Year Results Conference Call. My name is Kevin, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of Group TF1.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#2

Good morning to all of you. Thank you for joining us today. I am Rodolphe Belmer, I'm the CEO of the group and along with me Pierre-Alain Gerard, who is accompanying me, the Chief Financial Officer. Stephen, the coordinator did you confirm that we can go ahead because we're interrupted by sort of waiting music.

Operator

operator
#3

Yes, please go ahead.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#4

Okay. Okay. Good. Well, good morning again. And thank you again for joining us. I'm Rodolphe Belmer as I said, the Group CEO, and I'm with Pierre-Alain Gérard, our Chief Financial Officer, and we are very happy to have the opportunity to present the TF1 group's result for the full year 2023. Let's start with the agenda for today. We'll review first our activity. Then we'll move to our financial results presentation, we'll give an update on our strategy and outlook, and to finish up, we'll end up with a Q&A session. Starting with Page #4. First of all, we'd like to share with you the key highlights of what has been quite strong year for TF1 Group. We'll come back to them in more details after. But in summary, TF1 Group reinforced its audience leadership with increases in all segments. In 2023, the audience of the group channels stood at 34% for women under 50%, up plus 0.4 points and stood at 30.6% for the 25- to 49-year-old group, up plus 0.1 percentage points. There will be the Rugby World Cup recorded the best audience of 2023 with 16.5 million viewers. The second half of the year was marked by the recovery of the advertising market with plus 1.7% increase of the group's advertising revenue in the second half. MYTF1's advertising revenue maintained a strong growth momentum. Revenue totaled EUR 104.5 million, up 16% year-on-year, laying solid foundations for our new platform named [ TF1+ ]. Our ROCA margin was strong at 11.1% in the fourth quarter and 12.5% for the full year, close to 2022, in line with what we had announced during last year's annual results. We were able to generate a strong cash flow with a free cash flow of EUR 178 million before changes in working capital and of EUR 313 million after changes in the working capital. The group benefits from a solid financial position with more than EUR 500 million net cash balance. Based on these elements, we are glad to confirm that we achieved our 2023 guidance. Now let's turn to a detailed activity review of 2023 for our media and Newen Studios verticals. Starting with media. TF1's reach is the key underpinning factor of the value we deliver to our customers and the advertisers. On a daily basis, TV's overall reach was 79% last year and TF1 had a daily reach of 56%, way above any media and way above any competitor such as YouTube or Netflix, for instance. The group reached every month's nearly 56 million French people. In 2023, TF1 Group gained audience share across all targets, the 4-plus segment as well as commercial targets. For the women below 50 targets, TF1 audience share was 23.3%, up 0.5 points for the year with an increasing lead over its closest competitor, the gap with its competitor being now at plus 9.8 percentage points, almost 10 points gap with our closest competitor. On the 25-49 segment, which is the other primary commercial target in France, TF1 recorded an audience of 20.5%, up 0.2 point. And with a very significant gap [indiscernible] also versus our closest competitor. In 2023, TF1 recorded the highest ratings for each of the program genres thanks a strong event programming, including the Rugby World Cup recording the best audience of the year with 16.5 million viewers as well as entertainment, our entertainment lineup with [indiscernible] and also the news genre, with TF1 evening news at their highest or French fiction with HPI recording up to 10.4 million viewers. The group also provides a unique and distinctive offer through its DTT channels in a year marked by numerous national and international events, news events. LCI, our news channel achieved a record audience share of 2.0 points among the 4-plus targets, wide target and registered the strongest growth in the French [ audio visual ] landscape for news channel with an increase of plus 0.3 percentage points. TMC, once again confirmed its DTT leadership position with an audience share of 4.5% among women below 50 and same audience share on the 25 to 49 year old targets. As part of TMC, [ continuing ] The Daily Show confirmed its leading position in the talk-show segment with up to 2.9 million viewers. In 2023, TMC also recorded strong performance thanks to sports with up to 2.9 million viewers following France victory in the Women's Handball Championship. Let's now discuss our nonlinear activity results. In 2023, TF1 Group kept on reinforcing its MYTF1 platform, laying solid foundations for the new streaming platform, TF1+ that will commence more later on. MYTF1 maintained a strong growth with advertising revenues up 16% year-on-year, outperforming the market. The [indiscernible] Institute in stream estimates are at plus 10% for the -- for the markets. Platform recorded an average of 28 million streamers monthly over the year, up 5% versus 2022. It recorded a total of more than 1 billion streamed hours over the year, representing a rise of 8%. This performance was notably driven by the success of our strong linear franchises which are also very successful in streaming consumption mode. Successes such as the -- our popular Daily Shows, which worked very well in nonlinear and notably Ici tout commence and demand [indiscernible] our 2 very popular Daily Shows. And success like the French drama, HPI, which -- for which non-linear represents nearly 30% of the total consumption. Now turning to Newen Studio. As already explained all along the year, 2023 proved a challenging year in terms of revenue for Newen, reflecting notably a tough 2022 comparison basis. Notably, with the discontinuation by France Televisions of both Plus belle la vie in 2022 and reflecting also, the discontinuation of the SALTO. Another element, the -- well, 2022 was a strong comparison basis since we had very significant program and deliveries in that year, notably with the delivery of the iconic programs such as Liaison for Apple TV or Marie-Antoinette for Canal+ in the third quarter of 2022. 2021 also reflected -- was also marked by a lower demand from broadcasters across Europe and also from streaming platforms. However, Newen Studios returned to growth at the end of the year in the fourth quarter with important deliveries notably for Disney+, like To Cook a Bear, Nemesis and Nos Vemos. In 2023, Newen also demonstrated its ability to deliver record-breaking productions such as The Daily Show, Ici tout commence or [indiscernible] recording strong audiences over the year. It also continued to attract new talents in order to pave the way for the future. Let's move to ESG now. In 2023, well, 2023 was a strong year in that respect for TF1 Group. TF1 is recognized for its commitment to a more sustainable, inclusive and environmentally respectful society. Notably, TF1 has been recognized as the global leader in ESG practice across the broadcasters and advertising industry by Moody's. Once again, TF1 Group secured its AA rating delivered by MSCI in 2023. As a reminder, TF1 Group plans to cut its carbon emissions by 30% by 2023. That includes 42% cut on Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 25% cut in Scope 3a emissions. This [indiscernible] objectives have been approved by SBTi. Our ad sales house is leading the way and is developing specific environmentally-friendly ad programs fully financed by TF1 group called Ecofunding. The principle is the following: each of our clients' campaigns matching one of the eligibility criteria recommended by the ecological transition agency will trigger a contribution from TF1 proportional to the media budget invested, the fund that enables the creation and broadcasting of awareness campaigns. More than 20 advertisers joined this initiative in 2023 through 35 campaigns. Diversity and inclusion, both in our content and internally have been top priorities for the group. TF1 has further balanced gender equality with 48% women in the management, the management group of the firm in the management committee actually and 50% of the executive committee, which is the higher governing instance of the group. In 2023, 54% of experts invited in news bulletins were women. These performances reflect the group's strong ESG commitment. Now let's move to a more detailed breakdown of our financial results with Pierre-Alain Gerard, our Group CFO.

Pierre-Alain Gerard

executive
#5

Thank you. Rodolphe. Good morning, everyone. I'll now give you an overview of the 2023 TF1 Group's financial results. You will find the details of our consolidated financial statements, management report and financial statement appendix on our website. Consolidated revenue for TF1 Group for the year amounted to EUR 2.3 billion, down 6.7% on a constant basis and above the company [ complied ] consensus. You remember since the beginning of the year, we have perimeter effects due to the sale of Unify activities last year. In 2023, the advertising market was affected by the macroeconomic context in the first half but rebounded in the second half. Against this backdrop, group's advertising revenue came to EUR 1.6 billion down 2% compared to 2022 on a like-for-like basis and above the market according to our estimates. MyTF1's advertising revenue maintained a strong growth of 16% versus 2022 reaching EUR 104 million. Bear in mind that we only include advertising revenue here. Newen Studio posted a total revenue of EUR 329 million for the full year 2023, down 23% versus 2022 due to a tough basis of comparison as mentioned earlier by Rodolphe. Q4 revenue was back in positive territory and rose by 1%, notably thanks to the deliveries for Disney+. Moving on to current operating profit from activities. It stood at EUR 287 million for the year 2023, down 11% year-on-year and in line with the company complied consensus. The group current operating margin from activities stands at 12.5% close to 2022, as announced in our guidance back in February 2023. Current operating profit from activities in the Media segment came to EUR 256 million, leading to a current operating margin of 13% and stable compared to 2022 despite a challenging macro in H1 and thanks to cost discipline all year long and good advertising performance in H2. The cost of programs for the full year decreased by EUR 27 million to EUR 960 million. In Q4, current operating margin was up 1 point year-on-year. And for Newen, with current operating income from activities of EUR 31 million, Newen Studio margin stands at 9.5% in 2023 with a margin of 14.2% in the fourth quarter, close to 2022. On Page 15, regarding the income statement. I've already commented on the consolidated revenue and current operating profit from activities. Looking further down, operating profit after other operating income and expenses stood at EUR 253 million including 29.5%, sorry, of nonrecurring income and expenses mainly related to the rationalization of our real estate with the consolidation of our HQ premises in Boulogne and the strengthening of the existing employment and professional development management system to support the group's digital acceleration ambition. Net profit attributable to the group was EUR 192 million, up 9% compared with 2022, benefiting notably from the discontinuation of SALTO. Now let's analyze the evolution of the net cash position. Net cash stood at EUR 505 million at the end of December 2023, compared with EUR 326 million at end December 2022, which represents an increase of EUR 179 million. Free cash flow before change in working cap amounted to EUR 178 million and EUR 313 million after changes in working capital. It reflects an operating cash flow of EUR 502 million, down year-on-year, reflecting notably a lower activity for Newen Studio. The amount of net CapEx was slightly lower than last year. And then the big change is on the working cap, change in working capital is at 100 -- a positive amount of EUR 136 million, notably benefiting from the cash collected from the FIFA World Cup 2022 at the beginning of this year, which we had already mentioned during Q1 '23-year call and a lower amount of credit notes collected by customer at the end of the year. Acquisitions and disposal were not significant this year with a cash out of EUR 4.5 million related to small acquisitions at Newen Studio level, Felicita, Digital Banana or Kubik. Dividend and others represented EUR 129 million cash out, mostly related to the dividend payment and SALTO liquidation financing. Then on Page 17, an update on our optimization plan. As announced in 2023, we are optimizing our cost base to finance our digital acceleration program. In total, we target to reach more than EUR 40 million in operational cost savings from 2025 onwards, mostly from real estate, IT, procurement and organization. Out of these savings, a portion of EUR 10 million to EUR 15 million will be reinvested in our digital plan, covering mostly take and HR needs. At end of December 2023, i.e., at 33% of the timeline, 30% of the savings targets have been achieved, and we are on track to achieve the whole plan. In accordance with the distribution policy that we announced last year in February 2023, the Board of Directors will propose to the General Meeting of Shareholders on the 17th of April 2024 for the payment of a dividend of EUR 0.55 per share, representing a 10% increase compared to 2022 and also representing a dividend yield of 8%. I will now leave the floor to Rodolphe to provide an update on our strategy and outlook for the months to come.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#6

Yes. No, the presentation of our strategy and outlook, a summary of our ambition. Just to start, our ambition for the years ahead is to establish ourselves as the primary free-to-air destination for the news and family entertainment. This ambition builds on our DNA, a strong reach in free-to-air and a leading position on TV screen advertising in France as well as a unique content line up and editorial know-how. We are -- we have a 3-pronged strategy. First, we intend to strengthen the group's leadership in the linear advertising market. Second, in digital, we want TF1+ to become the leading free streaming platform in France. And third, regarding our Studios business, we intend to establish Newen as a key European studio with French roots. Before giving you more details on the different strategic levels. Let's come back to the key trends on which our strategy is based. The market evolution is offering us a strategic opportunity. 2023 confirms the following 3 structural trends. Consumers increasingly band towards on-demand when it comes to video consumption. In '23, 35% of the consumption of content -- of long-form content by the 25-49 age group was done on demand, up 5 percentage points compared with 2022. And this proportion is expected to grow further and to reach 50% in the short term. On demand consumption for long-format content is driven by TV screen. 80% of the VOD and SVOD content is consumed on a television set. And I mean of long form content is consumed on a television set. This trend is set to accelerate due to the fast adoption of OTT and smart TVs. Overall, the video advertising market is growing at around 20% per year in France from the starting point of EUR 1 billion in 2020 -- in 2019, sorry, to EUR 2 billion in 2023. This growth rate is expected to stabilize at between 10% and 15% yearly in the following years. The first pillar of our strategy is consolidating our linear market share, while TV advertising market has shown stable over the years, TF1 group market share has managed to grow. In 2023, the advertising market was affected by macroeconomic context in the first half but was able to rebound in the second half. We managed to navigate through the storm and minimize the impact on our top line. According to our internal estimates, this performance will translate again into a market share gain in 2023. This confirms that a premium content offering -- that the premium content, sorry, and a differentiating -- which are instrumental in an increasingly fragmented media environment. The power of television and the power of TF1, in particular, is definitely an asset for our customers and for the brands. To maintain this advantage, we have secured all our main entertainment franchises like [indiscernible], The Voice, [indiscernible]. We have renewed our lineup of French fiction with recurring [indiscernible], which are modernized, like master [indiscernible] also. We have signed ambitious coproduction projects with platforms like Cat's Eye, for instance, that we have with Amazon. And we have invested in flagship sports rights and notably, UEFA championship of 2024. In parallel, our sales house will be launching new advertising offers in order to simplify the readability of our pricing in Linear TV and increase the value extracted from our programs. Moving to digital now. Our intention with TF1+ is to create the leading and supported free-to-view streaming platform in France, aiming at doubling our market share on the digital advertising markets on the medium term by capturing revenues from contenders in that space and notably the likes of YouTube, Meta and so on. Our strategy further, as you can see on this slide, around 5 main building blocks on which we intend to deliver a superior performance and which will be detailed in the next slide. Awareness of course, reached streamed hours, ad inventories, and of course, CPA. As you will see, we have already made significant progress in the upstream part of the funnel, and we're actively working on every pillar to confirm our performance throughout the rest of the year. On the cost side, we have broadly stable cost base of programs, which are made of very strong and appealing franchises, which we leverage to efficiently address both linear and nonlinear strategies, which is one of the specificity of the areas of distinctiveness of our strategy. Second, our cost optimization program will allow us to have the financial capacity to finance part of our digital acceleration, notably tech and HR reinforcement, which will be more than fully financed by our cost optimization program. TF1 development is a value-creating project driving long-term performance for the group. Coming back to the first pillar of the funnel and giving some details on where we stand on the results we have achieved on this front. We have made a strong launch for TF1+ last month, very cost-effective and mainly based on PR and earned media. This campaign got impressive immediate results. We reached brand awareness, which is quite significant, and notably a year -- sorry, a week after the launch -- of the launch week of TF1+ meaning the week between January 11 and January 18, 50% of French people had heard about TF1+. 1 in 6 French people had tested this service. And at the end of the month, at the end of January, the added awareness of TF1+ stood at an impressive 73%. And we plan, of course, to carry on promoting TF1+ in the comments, both through advertising campaigns as well our own media support. The second pillar is reach. And on this front, also, we have made very substantial progress. We have developed new long-term distribution partnerships with all telcos, all connected TV suppliers and operating systems to enable TF1+ accessibility and visibility in the landing page. We created an ecosystem that is mutually beneficial to our distributors and to us through revenue sharing model, which means that we have aligned for the long-term interest of those 2 -- in this partnership. TF1+ is now available across all environments, all consumption environment and will be accessible on 25 million TV devices at the end of this quarter. Based on these agreements, TF1+ will be also referenced in first visibility, I mean, on the landing page, close to the other SVOD platforms on telco set-top boxes and OTT landing pages to stimulate on-demand consumption. As you can see on the slide, as you can see on this slide what visibility means on the telco set-top box, well, that's on the right-hand part of the slide, you see TF1+ on the SVOD horizontal rail, which is typically dedicated to SVOD platform. We intend platforms, we intend to reach more than 50% of this prime visibility by the end of 2024. We stand -- at the moment, we speak at around 25%, which is already an impressive achievement only a few weeks after the launch. Let's move to the usage now. Leveraging our premium lineup is the best way to create value. First, we have proven that our franchises work very well both in linear and nonlinear as up to 30% of the consumption of our top programs is already today made in nonlinear form. Second, with this dual exploitation, linear and nonlinear, we can amortize our content spend while developing their awareness and maximizing on-demand consumption. Our lineup available on TF1+ at every moment gathers more than 15,000 hours of content, very much in line with market standards for SVOD platforms. And with -- and we have achieved that notably with the extension of our rights, which are -- which now extends up to 48 months, the rights with -- we command following linear and nonlinear expectations. In that respect, we are only slightly [indiscernible] amending our editorial line, reinforcing French dramas, Daily Shows, [indiscernible] entertainment, reality shows to maximize the effectiveness of our lineup of content both in linear and more importantly, in nonlinear. Digital-only spendings in that respect will remain marginal less than 1% of our total programming cost and will be focused on family cinema movies and specific contents like info for which a specific format bespoke for nonlinear is needed. Technology is also a significant part of our value proposition, and we will release new innovative features in the coming months, notably during the last Rugby Cup, you might remember that we already tested the feature of that kind which is called Top [indiscernible], the personalized summary of sports game, lasting on demand between 5, 10 and 15 minutes, depending on users' preference. In June 2024, we will release on every device, a new AI-enabled industrialized version of this Top [indiscernible] feature for the start of the Euro as a way to promote a modernity image of our service. Maybe the -- just at this point, is that let me show you a video clip introducing to you the platform. [Presentation]

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#7

Well, after this video presentation and to conclude on that usage chapter, we can say that our TF1+ initial audience results, usage results were above our expectations. Of course, those results are preliminary, but we have communicated recently that we have almost doubled the usage of TF1+ compared to MYTF1. Turning now to advertising and our monetization strategy. We are -- we'll increase the ad pressure, the ad load on our content in nonlinear to significantly expand the volume of our ad inventories, while maintaining good viewing experience for our users. We are doing that right now. The ad load was around 4 minutes per hour on MYTF1. And with TF1+, we will grow that figure and, and our market testing that we have conducted at the end of the year lead us to target an ad load of up to 6 minutes on TF1+, we could increase that targets over time, depending of -- on consumer's acceptance. On the value front, our CPM stands now at around EUR 12, with room to grow, as we said before. We are working with our IPTV partners to improve the constant rate of our viewers for targeted advertising. On OTT devices, we have implemented our constant [ wall ], and it has been extended in rates in consequence -- concentrates in consequence, are increasing. They are at 80%, but lagged behind the concentrate we have on mobile devices, which stands at 90%, which means that we have still room to grow. We are developing a unique ID for our users. And now I'm talking about data that facilitates [indiscernible] with the data of our clients advertisers or other data partners as a way to increase the value of our data for our customers, hence underpin our CPM pricing strategy. We are also currently developing a very unique feature, which we call [indiscernible], the pioneering joint viewing recommendation algorithm. It's a first ever development, which will encourage viewers to declare which family members are in front of the TV set. Thus, enabling us to multiply the eyeballs we can monetize to our customers. Initial market response is very positive. Notably with the launch of [ Signature Plus ] at the launch of TF1+, the club of 8 premium advertisers of each category, we supported the role out of TF1+ by their advertising investments in the platform. Now let's move to the Studios business. After a challenging year in 2023, Newen Studios is set to resume growth in 2024, thanks to the expertise of its teams, a solid presence in all genres, like animation, drama, entertainment, and backed by a stronger demand. Newen Studios is also supporting the digital strategy of the group, the reboot of The Daily Show Plus belle la vie on TF1+ illustrates Newen Studios credibility and strong know-how in Daily Show [ plus ] with the ability of Newen Studio and TF1 to generate synergies. Finally, as announced on Monday, Pierre Branco is joining as the new CEO of the company, replacing Romain Bessi. I take this opportunity to warmly thank Romain for his meaningful contribution over the past few years. Guidance now. As you can see, 2024 will be a pivotal year for TF1 group. In the context of our value-creating digital strategy, our guidance is based on the 3 following building blocks. Keep growing in digital, building on the successful launch of TF1+, maintain our COPA margin aimed at growing dividend policy. So to sum up, we have a strong lineup for both digital and linear. TF1 groups audience performance has been very robust. Our digital activity generated a double-digit revenue growth. Our margin remains solid despite macroeconomic headwinds in the first half. We had a substantial cash flow generation leading to a robust financial position, and we're on track to achieve our operational cost optimization program. This led us to the following guidance for 2024, a sustained growth in digital, a broadly stable COPA margin aiming at a growing dividend in the coming years. That's all for those introductory words. Thank you for your attention. And now we are ready to take your questions.

Operator

operator
#8

[Operator Instructions] The first question on the telephone comes from Julien Roch of Barclays.

Julien Roch

analyst
#9

So the first one is M6, I said the beginning of the year was correct when it comes to advertising. What are the trends in January and February then like for me would be up 3%, 4%? That's the first question. Then can you come back on doubling market share. You mean doubling market share video. So you did EUR 105 million in '23 and video was EUR [ 205.2 ] million in '23 because the numbers are out. So your market share is 5.1%. So you aim for 10%. Is that correct? And when do you intend to achieve that 10%? And then the third question is cash EUR 505 million, and you're not doing much with it. So is you're going to have more cash than market cap at EUR 1.7 million market cap and EUR 0.2 billion more cash every year, you only have 5 years to go? I know that's a bit flippant. And then maybe a quick one, if we could get new and organic growth rate, please?

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#10

On the first question on the perspective of the advertising market. I guess, the linear advertising market in 2024, we have also -- we are now 2 months -- almost 2 months in the -- in this financial year, actually, the start of the year has been solid for us in the linear advertising segment also in nonlinear, of course, but a focus of your question. On the nonlinear and the ambitions and the target we have for the nonlinear. As we said, the objective of TF1+ is to establish itself as one of the leading [indiscernible] in the digital video segment, in the digital advertising video market, which is -- which has a size of around EUR 2 million now, which is growing double digits annually. And we said we expect a growth rate in that market of around 10% to 15% in the coming years. And actually, we have a market share of that segment that you have calculated well, which is around 5%, which is small, and we want to more than double that market share in the next 3 years.

Pierre-Alain Gerard

executive
#11

Maybe, Julien, on your last question about cash. You know that it's been important for TF1 to be in a net cash position. I already explained it. It's important for us to navigate through the advertising cycles, which can be volatile, as you know. It also gives us solid grounds to roll out our digital acceleration strategy. The topic of net cash is regularly on the table with -- and discussed with the board. That's why it's been decided this year due to 2 things: increase the dividend by 10% to EUR 0.55 per euro and also to slightly change the guidance for a more dynamic guidance in terms of the dividend policy. You remember that last year, we were aiming at stable or growing dividend policy, it has been changed to aiming at a growing dividend policy.

Julien Roch

analyst
#12

Very clear. And just on Newen organic because Newen has a couple of assets in Canada. And also you bought stuff last year. So it would be good to get a Newen organic every year?

Pierre-Alain Gerard

executive
#13

Okay. We can provide it to you later. But this year, in 2023, as I said when I was commenting the bridge, the net cash bridge acquisition have been very limited, very small [ year ]. Low single-digit figure in terms of M&A at Newen in 2023, mostly very small bolt-on acquisitions. And it's in the press release, Julien, but we can have a follow-up call if you want. But you have the right figures in the press release.

Operator

operator
#14

We have no further telephone questions at this time.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#15

If there is no more questions, I think this will signal the end of this meeting and will give me the opportunity to give some conclusion words. We have had a solid year in 2023 despite the macroeconomic headwinds and due to our ability to grow in market share in the linear advertising market. We have been able to make a promising start in our digital strategy, which should accelerate in the coming times, and we have been able to generate solid financial equation. On this backdrop, we are issuing today a solid guidance for 2024 with a sustained growth in digital, while we maintain a broadly stable COPA margin at the group level and aiming at a growing dividend policy in the coming years.

Operator

operator
#16

I think we have 2 more questions incoming.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#17

I have to redo my conclusion after that.

Operator

operator
#18

We did have some participant signal. We have Jerome Bodin of ODDO BHF.

Jérôme Bodin

analyst
#19

Yes. I'm sorry for being late for the question, but just 2 of them. First of all, just on the working cap, sorry, I missed some details in the presentation, but could you give a bit more details on the impact on the [ new ] market cap? And what do you expect for 2024? So if we see a reversal on the working cap and the free cash flow? That's the first question. Second question regarding the IT and technological cost for TF1+. Do you expect further cost in the midterm? And what could be the envelope or the platform is already full speed in terms of technology? And just the last one on TF1+. Regarding the price, you have seen in the press release, in the presentation, sorry, that you're mentioning increase in CPM versus MYTF1. So EUR 15 is at the final target? And what's your reason? Is it 2027, 2028? Or do you -- could you go further, especially when we -- we see the price implemented by some of your peers?

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#20

On the working cap question, I will turn it to Pierre. On the 2 other questions, IT and tech costs. We don't expect significant further cost in that respect. What we said before and what we should estimate is that we launched an optimization cost program at the group level with a target of delivering EUR 40 million in savings annually as of 2025. And we said that, that would be used to cover the incremental cost generated by our digital strategy. And we said that precisely, EUR 15 million will be used to finance, to absorb the incremental cost generated by our digital strategy in HR and tech, which means that all of those incremental costs that we are bearing to sustain our -- and to underpin our digital development will be included in that EUR 15 million envelope and which is totally financed by the cost optimization program. The specificity we have is that, well, we rely on outsourced facilities and capabilities to sustain our digital development and like all our large [ payments ], we results on Amazon Web Service to sustain our development, which reduces the investment we have to make, and the fixed cost, we have to consider to underpin our digital developments. That's one of the elements of nimbleness of our digital strategy. The other one being, of course, and more importantly, the programming strategy. On the CPM, we said actually that our target medium term was to reach CPM of EUR 15. We are today a bit lower than that with MYTF1, which means that we intend to grow, thanks to the better datization, I don't know if it translates well in English, but the better accuracy and depth of the data we will provide to our customers in the digital space, which will enable us to -- and due to the increase of the concentrate of our users for the -- well, to receive digital and targeted advertising. And we are quite comfortable with all that we can reach the objective medium term of EUR 15, given our starting point. And given also the reference pricing which has been set by some of our competitors and all the large international SVOD platforms have communicated on prices for their CPM in digital, which are much higher and between EUR 25 and EUR 50 per CPM, if you take Amazon, Disney+ and Netflix, we have a different proposition. And what we intend to do is to deliver massive viewing, massive streamed hours of [ viewees ] -- of viewing and massive digital inventories. And that's why we have set a pricing, which we think is core market and which is able to accompany our strong development in digital. We are not targeting the niche market of scarce inventory, we want to establish ourselves as a leading platform for viewing, but also in terms of Advertising revenue in the digital space in France, and it means have a sort of appropriate relevant pricing strategy, which is center of the market.

Pierre-Alain Gerard

executive
#21

Then moving on to working cap, Jerome, you have 2 elements. Since Q1 2023, I told you that we collected the cash from the FIFA World Cup, the Qatar World Cup, which occurred in 2022, but we collected the cash in Q1 2023. So in 2023, we basically collected the cash from 2 major sports events, which is a positive for the working cap. Then second element is you know that working cap changes are not necessarily aligned with the fiscal years. And for example, the credit notes that we issued at the end of the year are collected by clients. But this year, the amount of credit not collected by clients is lower than what we had in the previous years. So this will be -- it's a small portion, but it will be a reversal at the beginning of this year. Overall, as you know, we don't guide on our working cap on a year basis. But what I can tell you is that there is a strong focus within the company on cash flow and on a cash overall to sustain our dividend policy.

Operator

operator
#22

We have a question from Eric Ravary of CIC.

Eric Ravary

analyst
#23

A question on the programming cost. In 2024, should we expect an increase with the launch of your 2 programs, Bonjour! and Plus belle la vie in early January? And could you also comment on the impact of these 2 new programs and audiences and also advertising monetization?

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#24

On the programming cost, well, 2023 -- well, it's probably not the best year of reference because we decreased our programming cost line by around EUR 30 million, as we said, to adjust to the revenue evolution on the backdrop of the macroeconomic situation. We expect a better perspective in the revenue line in 2024 in the linear segment, which means that our programming cost will come back to normal. And that's what you have to estimate. On the launch of our -- of our 2 new programs, the Daily Show, Plus belle la vie and Bonjour!, we are satisfied with those 2 launches. Bonjour!, it's a news Daily Show which we have in the morning between 7 and 9:30 and which is sort of look alike, if I may say so, for our non-French attendees today, which will look a bit like the news show in the morning in the U.S., the morning shows. Well, the initial starts are good. We have reached market -- an audience share on the wide target 4-plus, which is around 9%, between 8% and 9%, which for this kind of program at this time of the day is a very solid and promising start. And when it comes to the commercial targets, we have double-digit audience shares, which is very satisfactory. Plus belle la vie, well, the launch of Plus belle la vie, it's a new daily show, the third daily show of aired on TF1. We aired it just after the midday news show of TF1 is doing very well on TF1 with ratings around 2.1 million every day. We have a -- the second broadcast on one of our ancillary channel called TFX in access prime time in the evening at 8:20, which adds another 0.5 million viewer. But more importantly, and I was coming to that point, the reason why we launched Plus belle la vie was also to sustain the launch of TF1+ because we know well -- that well, the prime content for AVOD platforms is, well, very [indiscernible] content and at the forefront, being the daily shows, which do very, very well, and which represent a significant portion of the ratings of our digital platform. It's also true for Star Academy, for instance, the entertainment show, which had a daily expression every day and which was also very important to sustain the consumption of our platform. And with that in mind that we launched Plus belle la vie, and it's a very good discussion of our strategy. We do programs which we think will do good on linear and also will accelerate our nondigital development and which are amortized on linear, and which is really, I think, the distinctiveness and the interest of our digital strategy, and in that sense, because we invest in premium content. We developed strong brand awareness for our franchises because of our -- the strength and the power of our linear channels, we are able to create franchises, which afterwards are demanded heavily in the nonlinear form on demand consumption mode.

Operator

operator
#25

We have no further questions at this time.

Rodolphe Belmer

executive
#26

Well, now I guess it really drives us to the very end of this call, I will not review my conclusion and together with Pierre, we want to thank you for your attendance today. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Operator

operator
#27

And that does conclude the TF1 2023 Full Year Results Conference Call. We thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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