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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Q3 and 9 months 2021 Results Call of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. This conference is being recorded. Today's call is hosted by Mr. Dirk Voigtländer. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome also from my side to our third quarter 2021 results conference call. As in previous quarters, today's conference call will be hosted by Rainer Beaujean, Chairman of the Executive Board; and Ralf Gierig, Deputy CFO of ProSiebenSat.1. During the presentation, Rainer and Ralf will take you through the financial and operational performance of the third quarter and the first 9 months 2021. Rainer will then comment on our increased financial targets for the current financial year. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. With these opening remarks, I now hand over to Rainer.
Good morning also from my side, and welcome to our analyst and investor call on our third quarter 2021 results and the first 9 months of this year. Let me start with a very positive message. ProSiebenSat.1 has posted a quarter of records and clearly improved its profitability throughout the year. This is a result of our successful strategy based on the synergistic setup of all 3 segments. We are very happy with our performance, closing the third quarter even stronger than expected, especially important and proof of the directions we are steering the business. Also our most important key performance indicators, such as adjusted operating free cash flow and ProSiebenSat.1's. return on capital employed are improving considerably. Please let me remind you that the ProSiebenSat.1's return on capital employed is an important KPI to measure our success. Let's have a look at the important moments of this quarter. We will begin with a short overview of what shaped our past months, followed by an update on our operational highlights. This time, we will put a focus on our entertainment activities, not only did we post significant growth in Q3, but this gives us the opportunity to show you the future prospects of the segment. Afterwards, we will cover our group financials and end this presentation with a closer look at the overall market development and our outlook for the full year. Let's start on Slide #3. Based on another strong quarterly performance, we set the course for further growth and raised our financial targets for 2021 again. ProSiebenSat.1 continued to grow dynamically in Q3, posting a significant revenue increase of 15% to EUR 1.055 billion. These are the highest third quarter revenues in the history of our group. At the same time, our adjusted EBITDA rose by 9% to EUR 162 million. Driven by a strong advertising business, our Entertainment segment continued to grow notably. Revenues increased by 15%. The segment's adjusted EBITDA by 11%, thus improving our earnings. Please note that we not only exceeded the 2019 level of our advertising revenues in the German-speaking region but that we recorded the highest advertising revenues in a third quarter ever. Our Dating segment continued to benefit from the first-time consolidation of The Meet Group in September 2020, and our Commerce & Ventures segment delivered another quarter of strong organic revenue growth. As I have already highlighted, our financial performance continues to improve strongly, and my Executive Board colleagues and I are pleased that we are making progress in achieving the targets we set out when we took on our current roles. We said that we would refocus on cash flow generation and the ProSiebenSat.1's return on capital employed with success. Our adjusted operating free cash flow has grown by EUR 100 million this quarter year-on-year, as Ralf will talk about in more detail later. And our ProSiebenSat.1's return on capital employed has increased to 13.6%, clearly ahead of our target of more than 10% for 2021. And therefore, a strong indication to reach our midterm target of 15% for the group, much faster than expected. At the same time, we reduced our financial leverage to 2.5x. Furthermore, we have set up our financing in a more stable, long-term oriented way. In October, we prepaid EUR 900 million of our existing term loans and used the proceeds of a new promissory loan in the amount of EUR 700 million for this purpose. Against this backdrop, we reduced our gross debt accordingly while taking advantage of the ongoing attractive conditions in the debt capital markets and further extending and diversifying our debt maturity profile. Based on our further good performance in the advertising market, we are again raising our full year targets. We will talk about that in detail later. Slide 4, shows how dynamic Q3 revenue increase in the amount of EUR 134 million is allocated across our portfolio. We are very pleased with the development of our Entertainment segment. As discussed, our advertising revenues in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, now are not only above pre-corona level, but also reach a new Q3 record fueled by the further strong demand from our advertising customers. In our Dating segment, the reported revenue growth of 53% underlying, how ProSiebenSat.1 is benefiting from The Meet Group. The Commerce & Ventures segment continues to recover strongly after COVID-19. Most importantly, the segment's organic revenue plus of 15% is driven by all of its verticals. Let's now take a closer look at Entertainment, Dating as well as Commerce & Ventures and their operational progress. Starting with the Entertainment business on Slide 6. We get a pretty good idea of the current dynamic in the TV advertising market in Germany. According to Nielsen, almost all key TV advertising industries grew their spending in the third quarter and the first 9 months of the year. Most notably, the services and finance industries left the COVID-19 restrains behind and started to pick up their spending. And it comes as no surprise that there is now catch-up potential in the automotive industry, which is currently being challenged by supply shortages. In other words, TV clearly continues to be the medium of choice for marketers to generate both attention and reach. On to Slide #7. In this positive market environment, our ProSiebenSat.1's advertising business continued to grow even stronger and faster than expected. In the German-speaking region, we recorded a strong increase of 21% in advertising revenues in the third quarter. Our biggest growth drivers are the Food, Finance as well as Health Care and Pharma sectors. With this performance, we are also 13% above the respective period in 2019 and thus our pre-corona level. Our 9 months period still reflects the lockdown influenced first quarter and is marginally below our 2019 results. Slide 8 gives you a quick snapshot of how ProSiebenSat.1 continues to lead the German market. With the gross advertising revenue share of 37.7% in the third quarter with regard to the last 12 months, we are clearly the #1 in the market. This is also true for the TV audience market with a share of 25.6% based on the past 12 months. These figures also speak for the attractiveness of our content and advertising products, which we have greatly developed over the past months. This brings me to Slide #9. We are further progressing on our local content strategy, which helps us to maximize our reach and to improve our monetization. As you all know, we further invested in attractive and relevant content with the most prominent example being the German Bundesliga, we will talk about that in a moment. But we also lift up to our live local relevance strategy with an extensive information campaign in the run-up of the federal elections in Germany and clearly fulfills the social responsibility that comes with our reach, plus, SevenOne Entertainment Group secured exclusive first access rights to all TV developments of Talpa concept. Talpa is internationally renowned for big entertainment shows. Among them are all-time hit, the Voice of Germany, allowing us the first pick on all future formats. This deal is a real win for our content strategy and further demonstrates that we continue to rely on partnerships when the idea is convincing. Advertising. By unifying the previously different booking [ login ] of TV and digital, our customers are now able to run the advertising campaign across our entire TV and digital offering, including our streaming platform Joyn and the digital channels of Studio71. Running the first major total video based on sea flight campaign on our channels in Q3, gives an idea of the potential of such a fully integrated advertising solution. Distribution. Year-to-date revenue plus of 7% until September in our distribution business demonstrate that this business has become a steady source of income over the years. And we are strongly participating in the increasing IPTV and OTT market by securing or renewing deals with third-party platforms. Examples are Magenta [ Tefal ], Sky OTT, Germany, HD+ OTT and Roku. The Deutsche Telekom deal also includes the extension of our reach in ultra-high definition and an advertising corporation regarding addressable TV and data-based offers. That's important because it now enables us to intelligently market Magenta [ Tefal's ] reach. Slide 10 puts the German Bundesliga in the spotlight. I was always very outspoken about the fact that we are able to monetize our soccer rights. Let me now show you how we made use of our entire entertainment ecosystem to do so. Our soccer coverage goes far beyond simply broadcasting the 9 live matches per season on TV. What did we do with the 3 matches that we aired until now? First of all, we recorded exceptional market shares, 27.7% at the opening game of the Bundesliga on free TV. We maximize this reach by extending our TV program with new formats such as the run Bundesliga Flash by streaming the matches live on Joyn as well as the run and SAT.1 apps and websites. And by further activating the digital space, for example, via weekly web shows on YouTube and Facebook Live or the Live vertical broadcast of 1 match on our TikTok channel. For these new sports environments, our sales team secured 5 strong advertising partners and monetized the linear and digital spaces through multiple special advertising forms. It's always possible because we extensively use the synergistic setup within our entertainment segment. From right's acquisition to editorial and sales, all areas work closely together to provide soccer fans with a first-class experience and advertising partners with a big stage for their messages, all multi-channels. This is exactly how we will also stage and monetize our further sports offerings, beat American football, motor sports or eSports and gaming. Let's move on to our Dating business. On Slide 11, you can clearly see the important role that ParshipMeet Group is playing for ProSiebenSat.1. The reported dating revenue increases of more than 100% compared to the pre-corona 2019 level, both in Q3 and the first 9 months. This reflects the first time consolidation of The Meet Group too. This revenue development is, amongst others, supported by 2 factors. First, the strong performance of our video as a platform service, short vPaaS, for which we were able to win 3 additional brands in the third quarter. Additionally, we have 5 further brands in the pipeline for the fourth quarter. vPaaS is the technology that enables our live video product and also includes the whole package of capabilities such as moderation, talent management, a formed variety as well as a gifting model for monetization. Second, the continuous positive development of our eharmony business, growing both in the U.S. and internationally, eharmony is on its way to become the largest brand in our matchmaking portfolio. On to our Commerce & Ventures segment, Slide #12, please. Also in our third segment, the remaining COVID-19 impacts are becoming less and less or are completely gone. Two examples. Our experience provider, Jochen Schweizer mydays raised its voucher sales in the third quarter by 13% year-on-year. And second, our car rental comparison business, SilverTours increased its revenues by more than 50%. Looking at the graph on this slide, you can see that we are performing not only better than last year, but also exceeding the precrisis figures of 2019 with a plus of 10% in Q3 and 11% in the first 9 months. And we are further creating value in this segment as our new investments as well as disposals on the next slide show. On the one hand, we have secured new deals and follow-on deals with start-ups or early growth companies. Among them, Grover, a leading European consumer tech subscription platform, which we are supporting via a Media for Equity Deal. We also launched the first 360-degree campaign on our minority investment Urban Sports Club, a sport and wellness platform and are now actively developing the brand with our high reach and advertising expertise. What do these companies have in common, a highly digital business model, combined with a strong ability to grow their businesses via advertising. On the other hand, we decided to sell all of our shares in Amorelie to e-comm group, one of the biggest players in the European sexual wellness market. We have been working with Amorelie for 7 years, following a Media for Equity Investment in 2014, we acquired a majority stake in 2015 and expanded our shareholding to around 98% in 2018. Over this time, our media power and operational know-how were essential to build the Amorelie brand in the German-speaking countries. However, we no longer consider ProSiebenSat.1 to be the best owner of Amorelie with regard to the further internationalization and thus the next development step of the company. Also, the topics of product design and product sourcing in countries like China and India are not the core competence of ProSiebenSat.1. We are great at building brands but are also prepare to sell companies once they enter the next development phase. Our focus is on investments that can be further developed through synergies with the entertainment business or even international platform businesses, such as ParshipMeet Group. And herewith, I hand over to our Deputy CFO, Ralf Gierig, who will explain to you how our operational progress is reflected in our group financials.
Thank you, Rainer. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome also from my side. Let me now continue with additional remarks regarding our financial performance in Q3 and the 9-month period for 2021, starting with a revenue overview for the group and our 3 segments. ProSiebenSat.1 Group continued to grow dynamically in the third quarter of 2021, recording a significant increase in group revenues by 15% to EUR 1.055 billion and thus achieving the highest third quarter revenues in the group's history. In particular, the group's advertising business has continued to improve strongly, with notable double-digit percentage growth. At the same time, other business areas also contributed to this considerable revenue growth, which demonstrates that the group's diversified profile and yet synergistic setup is paying off. On a 9 months basis, revenues increased by 19% to EUR 3.041 billion. Organically, i.e., adjusted for currency effects and portfolio changes, group revenues recorded an increase of 15% in Q3 and 16% in the first 9 months of 2021. Entertainment segment revenues amounted to EUR 728 million in Q3 2021, an increase of 15% or EUR 95 million versus prior year. On a portfolio and currency adjusted basis, revenue growth was also significant and equaled 17%. We have managed to strengthen our market position in an overall growing advertising market that after a strong increase in the second quarter has continued to recover dynamically from the COVID-19 effects of the previous year. This said, advertising revenues in the Entertainment segment in Q3 2021 were 18% above the previous year's level and at 12%, significantly higher compared to Q3 2019, the pre-COVID-19 level. Entertainment advertising revenues for the German-speaking markets even grew by 21% in the third quarter and by 13% compared to the pre-COVID-19 level in Q3 2019. With this, our Advertising business also notably outperformed the broader European market which recent data points of advertising agencies and other broadcasters suggest. The 9 months period was also characterized by the recovery of the COVID-19 effects. Entertainment advertising revenues increased by 15%, and entertainment advertising revenues for the German-speaking markets by 16%. The Distribution business continued its solid and predictable revenue growth with an increase of 7% in the first 9 months driven by HD subscriber growth and overall more comprehensive distribution agreements, as Rainer just explained. There was also a dynamic development in the content business, which led to a 20% revenue increase in Q3, resulting from the production business. Other entertainment revenues declined by 23% in Q3 2021 versus Q3 2020, amongst others, due to the deconsolidation of the hosting provider myLoc in September 2020. Dating segment revenues increased strongly by 53% or EUR 44 million to EUR 129 million in Q3 2021. This was driven by the first time consolidation of The Meet Group in September 2020. On an organic basis, revenues were almost stable at minus 2% in both the third quarter and the first 9 months of 2021. There are a few points to notice mainly relating to our matchmaking business in Europe. First, especially the first quarter of 2021 was still negatively affected by the lockdown measures in the German-speaking countries. Also, 2020 was a record year, setting a high base. As a result, Q2 and Q3 2021 faced particularly strong comparable figures from the previous year. Just to remind you, in Q2 2020, the matchmaking business was up by plus 13%. And in Q3 2020 was up by plus 11%. This compares to a multiyear trend in the mid-single-digit percentage range and illustrates the strong tailwind we had from the pandemic last year. Last but not least, we would like to highlight that the pro-forma revenue growth in the first 9 months of 2021 was 9% after about 33% in the same period last year that notably benefited from the pandemic. This being said, the 2-year revenue CAGR of the dating business in the first 9 months has been about 20%, which demonstrates the strong underlying financial performance, independent of the COVID-19-related tailwind, the business enjoyed last year. Commerce & Ventures revenues were almost at the previous year level and amounted to EUR 198 million in the third quarter of 2021. Please note that the prior year's level still included a EUR 31 million revenue contribution of WindStar Medical, which has only been deconsolidated in December 2020. Adjusted for this portfolio change and the currency effects, segment revenues grew by 15% in the third quarter. Here, the online beauty provider of Flaconi continued to be a meaningful revenue growth contributor, both percentage-wise and in absolute terms. Significant growth rates were also recorded, among others, by the online car rental platform, billiger-mietwagen as well as the experience in leisure business, Jochen Schweizer mydays. Lastly, the advertising business in this segment grew very satisfactorily by 25% in Q3 '21, driven by SevenVentures and the continued growth of wetter.com and marktguru. For the 9 months period, the segment posted a 14% organic revenue growth. Please turn to Page 16. As a result of the before mentioned dynamic revenue performance, the group's adjusted EBITDA improved further compared to with the previous year. On a quarterly basis, it increased by 9% and amounted to EUR 162 million. On a 9 months basis, though, it even improved by 43% to EUR 470 million, reflecting the revenue growth of the high-margin advertising business especially in Q2, but also in Q3 2021. The Entertainment segment increased its adjusted EBITDA by EUR 13 million to EUR 128 million in the third quarter. In the first 9 months, adjusted EBITDA improved by 41%, mainly as a result of the aforementioned dynamic development of the advertising business in Q2 and Q3 2021, respectively. In addition, segment earnings were supported by growing content and distribution revenues. This was partially offset by a notably increased programming spend, while programming spend increased by 21% to EUR 259 million in the third quarter, it grew by 9% to EUR 748 million on a 9-month basis. As Rainer mentioned before, we are currently making use of the very positive advertising market environment in order to strengthen all our platforms with attractive local and live content and to strengthen our overall reach. For example, we invested in sports rights, such as the German Bundesliga and the Formula E. In addition, we have spent more on German fictional formats as well as Primetime reality formats. The adjusted EBITDA of the Dating segment recorded an increase of EUR 6 million to EUR 25 million due to the first time consolidation of The Meet Group in September 2020. On a 9 months basis, adjusted EBITDA for the Dating segment grew 71%, also benefiting from the first-time consolidation of The Meet Group. In the Commerce & Ventures segment, adjusted EBITDA decreased by 25% in Q3 2021, primarily reflecting the deconsolidation of WindStar Medical which still contributed an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 5 million in Q3 last year. On a 9 months basis, however, adjusted EBITDA was almost stable and amounted to EUR 33 million despite the deconsolidation of WindStar Medical. WindStar Medical had still contributed an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 15 million in the first 9 months of 2020. Please turn to Page 17. Let me now continue with additional comments about other P&L items below adjusted EBITDA. Despite an increase in adjusted EBITDA, both reported EBITDA and EBIT have been below prior year's level. The only reason for this decline is last year's disposal gain for our hosting business, myLoc in the amount of EUR 35 million which led to a higher reported EBITDA and EBIT figure in the previous year, but which has been excluded from adjusted EBITDA as reconciling items accordingly. This caused a meaningful swing in reconciling items by EUR 31 million from plus EUR 25 million last year to minus EUR 6 million in Q3 2021, and affected reported earning metrics. The increase in reported net income in Q3 2021 and especially in the first 9 months of 2021 is due to the increase in operating profit as well as valuation effects recognized in H1 and which have also been excluded from the adjusted net income. Adjusted net income almost doubled in the third quarter of 2021, increasing to EUR 58 million. On a 9 months basis, it grew strongly by EUR 122 million to EUR 158 million. The meaningful increase largely reflects the very positive development of adjusted EBITDA and an improvement of underlying financial results. For example, due to lower interest expenses following the repayment of senior notes earlier this year. And already today, we can say applying our dividend policy, the dividend for fiscal 2021 will increase on the back of the emerging significant increase of adjusted net income for the current year. Let me now conclude this page by highlighting the substantial improvement of the adjusted operating free cash flow. This key figure of the group increased by EUR 100 million to EUR 134 million in Q3 and by EUR 236 million to EUR 303 million in the first 9 months of 2021. The positive development of the adjusted operating free cash flow reflects the group's high earnings growth and also underlines our effective cash flow management. Let us now have a look how this translated into a change in financial leverage and net debt on Page 18. Strong free cash flow and net inflows from M&A in the past 12 months resulted in the group's net financial debt decreasing significantly by EUR 377 million to EUR 2.111 billion at the end of Q3 2021 versus Q3 2020 despite the distribution of the 2020 dividend in the amount of EUR 111 million. The dividend payment also explains the net financial debt increase compared to the end of 2020. Please be reminded that in Q4 2020, we received net cash disposal proceeds from the disposal of WindStar Medical. Hence, Q3 2021 represents the last quarter in which this positive effect is reflected in the year-on-year comparison. Gross debt was also significantly reduced by EUR 950 million due to the repayment of the senior notes in the amount of EUR 600 million in January 2021. And the repayment of prior year's temporary RCF drawdowns. Against the background of the improved earnings in the past 12 months and the significantly reduced net financial debt, the leverage factor clearly improved at the end of the reporting period, decreasing to a factor of 2.5x compared to 3.7x at the end of Q3 2020, which was still heavily influenced by COVID-19 impact. This being said, we now expect the year-end financial leverage to further improve to below 2.5x as Rainer will outline in the outlook section. Let's move to the next page. As you are probably aware, we announced on October 8, 2021, that we refinanced part of our bank term loans of our syndicated facilities agreement by issuing promissory loans in the domestic Schuldschein market. Generally, ProSiebenSat.1 Group uses various debt financing instruments for the purpose of its group financing. The latter is regularly adjusted with respect to volumes and maturities. As such, in October 2021, we successfully placed promissory loans in the total amount of EUR 700 million with tenors of 4, 6, 8 and 10 years and respective volumes of EUR 226 million, EUR 346 million, EUR 80 million and EUR 48 million at very attractive terms. Following this, the company prepaid EUR 900 million of its existing term loans under its Senior Facilities Agreement in early October by inter alia, applying the full growth proceeds from the new EUR 700 million promissory loans. With the refinancing, the group reduced its term loans from EUR 2.1 billion to EUR 1.2 billion while further extending and diversifying the debt maturity profile. With this, I hand back to Rainer.
Thank you, Ralf. The figures just made it clear, our strategy is leading our company successfully into the future. Slide 21 visualizes this perfectly. If we look at the last 12 months, our group revenues clearly exceeds the precrisis level of financial year 2019 by about EUR 400 million. Although the pandemic had the strongest negative impact in the Entertainment segment, its revenues were above pre-COVID-19 level in the last 12 months. Our entertainment DACH advertising revenues were only approximately 1% below the level of the financial year 2019, and our diversification efforts with the Content, Distribution and the international Studio71 businesses drove our revenue growth. As for the group's adjusted EBITDA, the last 12 months figure is still below the level of the 2019 financial year. This is mainly due to the COVID-19 impact and the different revenue mix in the Entertainment segment, whereas the adjusted EBITDA of Dating and Commerce & Ventures combined increased by a total of EUR 39 million versus financial year 2019. Effect that just underlines the importance of these 2 segments for ProSiebenSat.1 long-term success. We are optimistic that the group's earnings will continue to improve going forward, also taking into account the continued investment in our businesses. And with these figures, we are well on track to achieve our new financial targets. Please turn with me to Slide #22. Against the backdrop of the further strong development of our advertising revenues in the third quarter of 2021, we have decided to again increase our full year 2021 financial targets compared to the outlook that we published on July 19, 2021. In total, we are now targeting group revenues of EUR 4.5 billion with a variance of plus/minus EUR 50 million. This corresponds to an increase between 10% and 12% compared to the previous year. The range of the revenue target figures continues to depend particularly on the development of our advertising revenues in the region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the context of the further course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the strong third quarter, we now assume a growth of 9% to 11% and thus a better than previously expected development. Based on these revenue assumptions, we now anticipate the group adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2021 of around EUR 840 million with a variance of plus/minus EUR 10 million. Looking at the midpoint. This corresponds to a year-on-year increase of 19%. We are further using the positive advertising market environment to increase our investments in local programming in order to expand our reach across all platforms and thus also create the conditions for further advertising revenue growth in the future. Accordingly, and as announced in the context of our annual press conference on March 4, program costs for the full year will amount in total to about EUR 1 billion, with over half of it relating to local content and will be in total up to EUR 50 million above the previous year. The increase of our revenue and adjusted EBITDA target ranges also has a positive effect on the group's other most important financial performance indicators. We now assume that the adjusted operating free cash flow for the full year should improve by at least EUR 100 million compared to the previous year. Due to our consistent management and the improvement of our relevant key earnings figures at the year end of 2021, we now anticipate our financial leverage ratio below the upper end of our 1.5x to 2.5x target range. As for the adjusted net income, we now expect this figure to be significantly above the previous year's figure of EUR 221 million. Accordingly, the dividend payment to the shareholders of our group would also increase. And as you know, we measure the midterm financial success of our company on the basis of the ProSiebenSat.1 return on capital employed which we introduced as our key figure for the entire group in 2020. Against the background of the improved operating performance of our company and our consistent sustainable management, we now target ProSiebenSat.1 return on capital employed of more than 13% in the financial year 2021. For the group as a whole, this key figure is expected to exceed 15% in the midterm. Looking at the last 12 months return on capital employed, which is at 13.6% as of September 30, we are well on track to exceed this midterm return on capital employed target ahead of expectations. This positive development is a result of our clear and focused strategy. All in all, disregarding the deconsolidation of WindStar Medical, our increased financial targets made clear that we are about to return to the pre-corona level of 2019. And the current market environment is providing a further boost. Perhaps one or the other should also take a look at the guidance improvement from the beginning of the year. At the midpoint, our new revenue and adjusted EBITDA targets are EUR 250 million and EUR 90 million higher than the forecast we were still expecting in March. We are outperforming our German competitors, especially in the entertainment segment, clearly showing how strong and well positioned ProSiebenSat.1 is. In addition, we create additional value through our 2 other segments, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. On to Slide #23. With regard to our investments, we have defined strict criteria across all segments in order to ensure financial soundness of our projects, but also guarantee our continued focus on synergies within the group. For example, we ensure that expansion and new investments will pay back in general within 3 years and generate a return of at least 18%. Strategic projects are usually expected to be amortized within 5 years. Furthermore, projects must have a close connection to TV or should be a platform business to maximize our synergy potential. Overall, these criteria contributes to our 15% return on capital employed group targets and our sustainable growth objective. As you can see on the slide, this is very consistent to what we have done over the last 2 years. Now looking further into our future. I want to raise your focus on an annual survey on Slide 24. Media usage in Germany reaches a new high for the second time in a row following last year's record. German spent 13 hours a day on mass and individual communication. This equals an increase by around 20 minutes each. TV thereby continues to dominate the media consumption as medium #1, accounting for 37% of the average daily media usage, a figure that has remained stable compared to last year, and it plays a special role in triggering consumer activities. These results not only underline that TV is indispensable for marketers, but also ProSiebenSat.1 strong positioning as leading player in the German TV market. With our strong digital offerings, we are thus present in the 2 most important advertising markets and especially expand our position in the growing Internet content market. If we now look at the future development of these markets, you can see that we are in a great place to continue a strong monetization in our Entertainment segment, especially as private consumption is considered to develop much more dynamically in 2022 than this year. The overall advertising market is expected to grow by 5% next year after increasing by 11% in 2021. And I've already been able to show you today that we are well positioned to take advantage of these positive favored prospects. To sum up today's presentation, we are making good progress on our profitable growth path, and we are confident that we will continue to do so in the future. First, our strong performance throughout the year and our once again increased financial targets, proof that we have successfully and on our own left the COVID-19 crisis behind. Second, even more, we are on track to exceed our midterm ProSiebenSat.1 return on capital employed target, ahead of expectations. This is the result of our consequent execution of our value-creating strategy. Third, we will continue to leverage our leading position in German-speaking entertainment markets to generate substantial cash flows and profits. Fourth, in order to boost our organic growth, we intend to invest further in all 3 of our segments: Entertainment, Dating and Commerce & Ventures. And fifth, based on our successful strategy, we will continue to focus on the improvement of our cash flow as well as our ProSiebenSat.1 return on capital employed. And last but not least, partnerships continue to play an important role for us in every segment to drive our success story, whenever it makes sense for both parties as well as all of our stakeholders and whenever the partnership enriches our business. With this, we are guiding to ProSiebenSat.1 into a value-creating future, backed by our own strength, our digital focus and our synergistic group setup. Thank you for your attention, and we are now ready for your questions.
Our first question today comes from Annick Maas from Exane Pariba.
So my first questions are just related to dating. If you could maybe tell us what the organic revenue growth was of Meet. And then also, if you could tell us how much vPaaS is expected to be making up in terms of revenues in absolute by year-end? Then second question is with regards to the TV advertising market, I think you just said 5% growth is expected for next year. Just was wondering where is auto advertising in there? Is that already fully recovered in that estimate? Or is that a potential upside here? Then you have mentioned in the call that Flaconi is still growing strongly. If you could maybe put a number to that as well as to its profitability. And last question, just on financial results, how we should think about it for this and next year?
So let me start with the second one. This is a market statistic, the 5%. And therefore, we don't have further details about that. So it's more or less only the reason to explain that the overall market is very positive for TV. And what I also would like to ask you for, and I think my IR department will share that if they haven't done that already, the media activity guide, which explains precisely how the markets, how TV is doing in Germany and how the other businesses are doing is very interesting for all of you. And I think that will be a good read over the next days. Dating, yes, you are asking a lot of questions which are very detailed. Let me give you a few points, which I have to make overall because I'm pretty sure that also others will have a lot of questions to dating. First of all, the development in Q3 is mostly related to our matchmaking business in Europe. And firstly, especially the first quarter of 2021 was still negatively affected by the lockdown measures in the German-speaking countries. So if you recall, 2020 was clear a record year and really setting a high base. And as a result, Q2 and Q3 2011 -- 2021, we are facing particular strong comparable figures last year. So -- and also to remind you, in Q2 2020, the matchmaking business had grown with plus 13%. And in Q3, it was if I remember that correctly, I look in the face of Ralf, I think, plus 11%, yes, he says that's right. So this compares, in my opinion, to a multimedia trend more in the mid-single-digit percentage range and illustrates and that's exactly the problem. The problem is when normally matchmaking is growing mid-single digit, than you have in a year like last year, a strong tailwind from the pandemic year. And that's clearly one of the reasons why you have to take 2 years together to come to the right average, and I will come to that in a second. Third, aside from the tough comparables on the performance at Parship and especially a lead partner this year, has also been impacted by a European commission ruling, which has meant the loss of value compensation revenues when customers withdraw within 14 days. And looking ahead, and that's referring to your question. We can already see that live video, including vPaaS is showing positive early indicators. And this makes us very optimistic that we will return to better growth soon again. It is also worth noting that the U.S. matchmaking business eharmony has continued to grow strongly throughout the period. And this is a result of growing first-time subscribers and an expansion of marketing channels as well as revenue benefits from customer order renewals. So when you then take that all into account and you compare U.S. matchmaking business eharmony, which has continued to grow strongly throughout the period as a result of growing first-time subscriber numbers and an expansion of marketing channels. We believe that eharmony will become very soon the largest service in the matchmaking business in full year 2021. And it will continue to meaningfully support the growth of the matchmaking business. So now I give you some numbers around the situation which we have. So Q3 2021 pro-forma revenue growth was minus 5%, which compares -- and I've said that at the beginning, to a strong plus 42% in Q3 2020. And when you then look on -- and that had to do with the tailwinds of the corona crisis. If you then take the 2-year average in the compounded average growth rate, you end up with a plus 15%. And that's a little bit what you have to look at because last year with corona was a year which was very -- which was good and great. But that also in growth rates, we've hurt you a little bit, but overall, we are very strong. And even in Q3, pro-forma revenues growth has slowed down. It is still worth highlighting that dating grew overall 9% on a pro-forma basis in the first 9 months 2021. Following and again, when you take the first 9 months in 2020, the number was plus 31%. And again, here, when you then take the average for the 2 years, you have a number, a CAGR of approximately 20%. And that hopefully explains a little bit why we always push to look a little bit beyond the quarter. So you really have to look what was happening during the last 2 years, what is normally a good growth number for the matchmaking business how good, how strong is The Meet Group, especially the video content in vPaaS. And as I already said in my speech, there is other to come. And that also shows you that we are very optimistic. We think it's a great business. It's performing well, and we are very happy with the dating business. So then to your question of Flaconi, I think, Ralf, if you want to give that numbers? Yes, yes.
Annick, Flaconi was doing quite well in Q3. We had a double-digit percentage growth in the quarter, yes. So performance is really good. And I think you asked for financial results for the full year potential outcome. I think we reported for the first 9 months, EUR 53 million financial result. As you know, the 2 main components are interest and at equity. And on a full year basis, it should be something in class of [ 100 ], I would say, yes, we have to reflect another quarter of joint at equity result interest. This is probably the best guidance I can give.
We now move on to our next question from Julien Roch from Barclays.
Yes. The first one is, could we get advertising trends in Germany for October and if possible November? Second question is the -- my usual one, which is Ralf, can we get smart advertising in Q3, either in your millions or year-on-year growth. Then third question, coming back quickly on dating. Can you give us organic for Meet in Q3. And then fourth question -- sorry for asking 4 questions. You were raising advertising target to [ 911 from 37 ], i.e., 4 points more of advertising, which is EUR 80 million. So you're not changing programming cost guidance, which stays at EUR 1 billion, but your EBITDA goes up only by EUR 20 million, while the advertising revenue goes up by EUR 80 million, but programming cost is flat. So what's happening to the other EUR 60 million?
Let me start with your last one. The guidance is EUR 1 billion. And we said at the beginning of the year that we perhaps will spend approximately EUR 50 million more dependent on how successful our content is. If you would look on the German statistics, currently, you will see that we are outperforming all the others in that market and that our local and live and relevant strategy works out very well, and therefore, included in our guidance of EUR 840 million adjusted EBITDA plus/minus EUR 10 million is also -- that we can go up or will go up in the content spending to the already announced in March, approximately EUR 50 million dependent on our results. So overall, a very, very good situation. But by the way, it doesn't mean that we are increasing now every year with EUR 50 million. So this number will stay around EUR 1 billion, plus/minus EUR 50 million dependent on the content, which we have and the opportunities we have. So we are very consequent in our local live and relevance strategy. More than 50% of our content spend is already in this area. For those who also look on the balance sheet, you already see the decline there and that also plays out, as I already said 2 years ago. This company is managed consequently on operating free cash flow and is consequently managed on a return on capital employed that's increasing our profitability, and we are doing this since 2 years, and it's getting better and better, and we also want to do that going on further. Advertising trends, Germany in October, a very strong for us. I don't know if it's for everybody the same. That's then also a question to the others, but we can say as a market leader for sure, we have taken the advantage, all of the good questioning. November, difficult to say currently, we are still on the basis I have in mind that last year was a very tough comp in November. So this is -- could also be a little bit of a decline. December, we don't know, and that's the reason why we have given a guidance in mid that the Austria, Switzerland and Germany sales in mid should stay overall for advertising on the same level, nearly on the same level like last year, which was a very strong Q4 and that's what we have in mind here. There is a chance to be better, but we have to see first step how the development are in December will be decisive for that. We think October is very good. November seems also to be good December, we don't know because -- but again, when you see the questioning, when you see the statistics, when you see how important TV is, we are here very optimistic going on further. So then Ralf, yes.
Yes. Julien, on digital and smart. When I look at the German business, it was a solid -- very solid double-digit percent -- low double-digit percent, I have to say, though, for the German business. And trends on a year-to-date basis are in line with what we have seen for the other part of the entertainment business in the German-speaking markets. On organic growth for TMG in Q3, please bear with us, we are not commenting on this currently, but we will provide, obviously, information as soon as we can.
Our next question comes from Richard Eary from UBS.
Sort of -- 2 sort of -- 3 major questions for me. Just firstly, going back to dating, could you update us on the planned IPO updating whether that's being impacted by the recent results. The second thing is that obviously, dating is comprised of Parship, eharmony and The Meet Group. Can we try and get better understanding of what actually is the growth rates of those 3 businesses within the dating business in Q3 and what the expectations are for the full year? And particularly in reference to looking at match numbers, which were up 25% in the third quarter and the guidance of being up 24% to 26% in the fourth quarter. And then lastly, just coming back to Flaconi, Ralf, you said up double digits. I don't know whether you could be a little bit more precise about because historically, this was a business that was doing close to 50% revenue growth. That has obviously slowed in the second quarter with some tough comps. I think that we would all like to understand that is that double digits like 10%? Or is it actually significantly higher than that. And so if you can be a bit more precise around that guidance number or that reported number, that would be great.
So as Ralf said, we won't give numbers for the dating business in detail because, as you know, our preparation and that works together with the planned IPO which -- where our ideas haven't changed. And the numbers which we have are very positive going on further. As I said, you have to take the average for 2 years. And when you look on the growth numbers, the perception going on further. This is a very good and very strong business. So we still plan to IPO this business next year. Again, our idea is here to give General Atlantic, the opportunity to sell down several shares, and we will stay as a long-term shareholder due to the fact that especially this business creates high value for us as a group and also has a lot of synergies where we believe that has a high value. So -- and that's the reason why we are very optimistic going on further.
[indiscernible] With regard to the preferred equity that sits inside dating, which will be nearly probably up to EUR 400 million at the end of this year, given obviously the increase in the coupon every year. What is the intention on that preferred equity? Is it to take that preferred equity out or roll that into high equity stake? Or maybe you can add some color on that?
No. This is, as I said, too early to talk about that. We will discuss that in that situation when it comes to the IPO. For sure, we have ideas of what we want to do. But first of all, it's too early to talk about that. So let's cross that bridge when we reach it. And currently, we are not reaching it. So we have to do our homework. We have to see how the performance is. We should finish strongly at the year-end, and then we do the preparation and then we figure out. As we said in the past, for us as ProSieben, it would be ideal to use the financial year results for something for the IPO because then we have 3 years in a row. We don't have to do the double work, and that gives you an indication when it could happen because this clearly defines the time frame but we are also not pushed, but we are very optimistic that this is happening because we see the positive momentum. And we -- hopefully, I could make it clear in our presentation and also with the first answer I did that with the vPaaS business, with the growth which we see also eharmony matchmaking we have, and that's perhaps one of the reasons which is different to match or the others, we have that specific situation in Germany with the European Commission ruling, which the others don't have, which hurt the matchmaking business in Germany a little bit and that's the reason why we were weakened there a little bit, but that's washing out in the future, and therefore, we are still optimistic in that area, too. Flaconi, do you want to answer it, Ralf?
Yes, I can do. So you want to have a more precise figure for Q3 revenue growth, it was 17%.
We now move on to a question from Jérôme Bodin from ODDO.
Two questions on my side. First of all, just to follow up on your cost prospect for Q4 for the TV business. Should we see the same gap between the top line growth and the cost growth in Q3. Is it a good way to look at it? And could we maybe have a bit of color and the philosophy for next year? Secondly, also to -- just to follow up on Flaconi, could you just make a quick update on your strategic willingness for the asset? Keep it steady, take time, et cetera.
Jérôme, I take the first one. Obviously, much will depend on the dynamics in top line, yes. I mean, I think -- when I look at my table, yes, we had in program costs for the group, we had EUR 336 million. And depending on top line development, the figure for this actual quarter could actually be below. But we will see how top line develops. Important to note again that our guidance for full year is fully reflecting what we will do with program costs.
Yes. And Flaconi strategy hasn't changed. And I know there were a lot of rumors at the beginning of the year, but we didn't have a process. We didn't open a due diligent room or something like that. Yes, I know that a lot of people are interested in this asset, and it is the same situation as before. If someone is interested, they can give us a call, we discuss if the number they provide is good for us than we talk like we do with all the assets which we have. But clearly for us, we have a very good shareholder. You can see that when you look on the growth when you see the synergies between TV and the asset. And -- but like for all the assets take Amorelie, now as an example, when it comes to further internationalization, when it comes to sourcing in different countries, then automatically, the question is after building up that brand, building up the positioning, putting all the systems in place. Are we any more of the best shareholder and that's then exactly the time when we would discuss it. But currently, there is no further strategy then keeping it, letting it grow and position it as a good asset.
We now move on to our next question, which is Conor O'Shea from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Yes. 3 questions from me as well. First question on just the advertising to come back on the advertising guidance, just to make sure something you're not missing on that. I think you're up 16% on that through 9 months and guiding 9% to 11% for the full year, which I think even allowing for the lower weight of Q2 last year implies a decrease in Q4, which doesn't seem consistent with your comments on the development so far in Q4, Rainer. It doesn't seem to be a negative impact from the election or anything like that. So -- just wondering if you had any extra thoughts on that. Second question on the [indiscernible] just come back on that. I think the number is that Ralf gave imply EUR 65 million increase year-on-year through 9 months, and you're guiding for EUR 50 million increase full year. So that would imply a decrease in Q4. So that maybe answered that on the previous question, Ralf, but just to confirm that. And then finally on the dating business, could we expect that to improve sequentially in Q4 in terms of organic growth? Quite naturally, given that we'll be overlapping the consolidation of need from last year, and that would be considered organic where growth is better. Is that a high probability outcome?
Yes. As I said for Q4 guidance, for the advertising business. For sure, we have an uncertainty what's happening in December. We see currently corona getting up again. So -- and that's the reason why to be too aggressive is not our target here. We feel, as I said, very comfortable to reach these numbers. And I'm -- yes, it's a good number. It's a strong number. And we had tough comp last year in November. November has to come in. December was also a very strong number. So we have to see if we are able to -- if we can outperform November and December for sure, it looks different. But we have given here how the number which we believe in. And again, they have in mind where we come from. So we had a very good year. We are giving our better numbers than all the others, stronger numbers. And then we stay optimistic that there is, based on our positioning a good possibility also to at least reach them. So I can't be more precise on that because we don't know it better currently. We always give out what we know. And that's exactly what we want to do. And I'm very -- I would be very happy if we reach these numbers, which we have given out, and I think they are very strong, so.
And so one question, Rainer, is -- in a normal year, are the weights of October, November, December, within Q4 relatively even. Is there anything to say on that in terms of the calculation?
Yes, November is the biggest. November is normally the biggest one. November is the biggest one and the most relevant one that has also to do with the pre-Christmas discussion and the decision in this year, too. We don't know if the consumers or the advertisers decided to be in October due to the delivery problems of several of the shops and whatever because they are some problems. And therefore, some of them already started to advertise perhaps a little bit earlier, we don't know. We have to see -- we are booked out currently. So I only can tell you that for our Commerce & Ventures and the Dating business sometimes an issue because normally, I was using free capacity, and this is not the case. So we're increasing prices. We are very strong. So I can't see a weakness, yes. So -- and -- and that's our current situation. So as I said, very optimistic for the rest of the year. But we have to see how this will develop because it's not clear. It's not clear because the lead time has shortened. We discussed it several times during the last meetings. We are at 4 weeks sometimes, and that's the reason why I'm -- we have to see how December works. So -- but November is most decisive because November is normally the strongest one, the strongest months in the last quarter. Program costs, perhaps you can repeat the questions again.
Yes, just on the programming cost, I think maybe more for Ralf. I think given the increase that you called out, it implies about EUR 65 million year-on-year increase so far in 9 months. And I think you're guiding full year EUR 50 million increase. So that would imply lower spend in Q4, I guess, relative to EUR 336 million number that's not called out. So is that -- can you confirm that, that is a reasonable expectation?
Yes. I think already the question I received from Jérôme was going in the same direction. So yes, Q4 program costs could be below Q4 2020 program cost, I think that I can confirm.
And by the way, there is no self-fulfilling prophecy to spend more or less. It depends on the formats which we get and as more local and life as possible, then we would like to go into it. And there are some shows coming up, and we have to see how they develop. And that also is relevant for the cost. So it's more or less on the program and the things which we reached with that. So if we get the opportunity to do several live events on top of that, but we already have plans and for sure, we would be ready to do it because at the end, that's the basis for advertising. That's the basis for our performance that we have good content and a high reach. And that's what is our -- that's our target. And -- but we will stay in the declined lines, which is EUR 1 billion plus EUR 50 million on maximum.Dating improvement in Q4. Yes. That was one of your questions?
Yes, on the organic.
Possible. Yes, possible. Yes. But -- and we can see currently that some of the businesses are taking up again, but it all depends how fast vPaaS comes in. This is then for the video piece. And on the other side, the downloads and especially for the dating business that people start to -- after they went out when it's getting darker again, and they have the opportunity to meet that then for sure, this is normally the basis. for this kind of matchmaking business that you also have the opportunity to meet. And that's also a little bit relevant what is happening to corona and how this works out. So there's a little uncertainty, but we are further on, as I said at the beginning, optimistic for the dating business because this is a very strong and good business, and we totally believe in it. And we will see growth.
And with Meet -- fully integrated in the organic for the whole Q4 that has a better growth profile that should work?
Yes, correct.
We now move on to Adrien de Saint Hilaire from Bank of America.
I have a few outstanding questions, please. First of all, back on the dating growth. So you mentioned that it was 15%, I think, on a CAGR basis over 2 years. If I'm not wrong, I think it was about 20% in Q2. It's not exactly clear to me where things have decelerated for online coming back to this. Secondly, on your streaming strategy, are you happy with the developments around Joyn? Or do you think that you could go back to, let's say, going on your own? And then back to the dating stuff, I think you mentioned you were willing to retain a stake, of course, in the business. Just curious if you're still willing to retain a majority stake. Or if you could use the process of the IPO to also monetize your stake in that process or if you're still willing to get a majority stake and if you can explain why you want to retain a majority stake.
So first of all, dating business, our clear announcement here was always that we keep our majority stake because we will have 53%. And the main reason is also that we give GA the opportunity to step out. And yes, that's clearly the basis and we totally believe in that business, and we also believe that it fits perfectly to our strategy. Coming back to your first question, which was dating growth, the average of 15%. Have in mind that in Q3 2020 was the highest comp of sales in that month. We had a growth compared to 2019 of plus 42%. So -- and that's the reason why in Q3 2021 compared to 2020, we had minus 5%. And that's the reason why I came on this average number of -- in 2 years of approximately 15%. That's how we reached it. And this was really the toughest comp, which we had last year on a monthly basis was clearly Q3. Third question, streaming strategy. It's not my quote. I've learned that on the media days. You can love a business 100%, which you only own 50%. And exactly that's what we do. Because at the end, we do have here a business which perfectly plays into our windowing strategy. We are doing something different than the others do. We totally believe that for advertising, reach is relevant. So we do everything in our group, in our windowing strategy with all the things which we have to increase our reach for the advertisers, stickiness and reach are the ones which are the basis for the advertisers to come to us. And we are primarily advertising finance, Joyn also is primarily advertising finance. So for sure, we also have a subscription piece, but the subscription piece doesn't pay this important role like others. Yes, we have some previews, we have Blackout, a new series now also in Joyn PLUS+. But this at the end is part of the monetization, but we clearly use the content which we acquire, linear and digital to show that also on Joyn. And that's the reason, as more we own local live and relevant as more opportunities we have to monetize it via Joyn. And that's exactly what we want to do. So we really see Joyn as our channel in the B2C world. And then for sure, as you know, because we were talking about that also in my speech with the 7% growth in distribution business, this is the B2B world. And here, we monetize the rest of our content on all kinds of platforms, and you name it. So which kind of -- and this is then similar to all the other streamers like Disney or TV NOW or whoever because here in the B2B world, for sure, we do the similar things. We have a distribution deal and sell our content via a distribution deal. And we -- and that has to do with household income at the end, because when you look on the statistics, in our opinion, it will be very difficult long term that people will have 8, 9, 10 subscription-based services. And that's the reason why we believe, as it's learned via YouTube, Facebook and all the others, and in the future also with TikTok that advertising is part of streaming. And that's the reason why we believe that Joyn is a good position, well positioned product in the young target group, which is the other main factor because our target is to position Joyn in the young target groups. And that has to do with the situation that especially advertisers are also interested in having a digital possibility. And that plays together with all the formats like CFlight and all this kind of stuff, which we introduced new during the last 2 years to the market. And when you look on the overall performance of our strategy in the Entertainment segment, you can clearly see here that this plays out. That's the reason why we outperformed the others in that piece and that has to do with this positioning. Unique, different, but very successful.
Great. Thanks for the very detailed answer, Rainer. If I can just add a follow-up, you mentioned like mid-single-digit like-for-like, growth in the dating business was the sort of historical trend. Is that also your best sense of the growth next year?
No, we are not forecasting currently what is happening next year. And I was referring to the matchmaking piece in the overall business because the matchmaking piece in the past was growing mid-single digit. And then we had this outperformance in the year 2020 via the corona pandemic. Here, we had growth of the business in Q2. The matchmaking business had grown by a plus 13%. And in Q3 2020, plus 11% and when you then see plus 13%, plus 11%, and compare that to the normal growth in such a business in the past of mid-single digit, that then you have to look for the 2 years on the average. And for this kind of business? And then you see why the decline in that business overall on the pro-forma numbers is clearly based on that compared and on top influenced via the European Commission decision, and that's exactly where the reason for that is. So it's a onetime effect, a huge tailwind in 2020, the European Commission decision, and that's the reason why I'm more optimistic for next year. But as I said, we cross that bridge when we reach it. This is not today. This is when we really go out and do the announcement.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this was the last question for today's call. As always, my colleagues in the IR department and myself will be available for any follow-up questions shortly. Thank you, and goodbye.
Thank you. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.