Net profit, excluding the accounting impact of the investment in Prosiebensat1 in the two financial years, was positive at €217.5 million, a significant increase (+17.7%) compared to €184.7 million in 2022.
At the end of the meeting, CEO Pier Silvio Berlusconi gave an interview that will be broadcast this evening by Mediaset's TG5 news program: “Our holding company has closed a year to remember.We have done everything that a publicly traded company can and should do. We have invested in development by consolidating our Spanish television business, grown our shareholding in Germany, and remunerated all shareholders – all without significantly increasing our debt. So all really good.”
The CEO of MFE also spoke about the growth in employment at the group, in contrast to other giants of the world media that last year cut almost 100,000 jobs. "We have decided, I dare say as a matter of business ethics, to go back to hiring. In 2023 we set ourselves a goal of 250 new hires, and I can say that we ended the year with well over 300 new staff. And we would like to do the same thing in 2024 and 2025, hiring mainly young people and women.”
Finally, Pier Silvio Berlusconi gave Mediaset’s flagship news program an early insight into consolidated advertising revenues for the first quarter of 2024, which are even higher than the 5% previously communicated. “We've found the market to be very buoyant. Our advertising revenues in Italy and Spain grew by 6% in the first quarter. This is great for Mediaset, but it is a good sign for all businesses, because advertising is often a litmus test of what will happen in the economy.”
