RTL said on 7 March that revenue was nearly €6.4bn last year, with growth in large part driven by its terrestrial stations in Germany and France, and its “rapidly growing digital businesses”.

The company’s Ebitda margin, a measure of profitability, inched up from 22.6% to 23%.

RTL’s board will propose a dividend of €3 per share for the 2017 fiscal year.

In the company’s press release, Bert Habets, CEO of RTL Group, stated:

“This set of strong results shows that we are in an excellent position to write the next chapter in RTL Group’s success story. To succeed in this mission, we have to go back to our roots, to re-invigorate RTL’s pioneering spirit – one of taking calculated risks, putting consumers first to maximise the time they spend with our content and sharing best practices and business opportunities across our Group.”

Management expects total revenue to grow between 2.5% and 5% in 2018.