Overall Assessment of Future Development – Management View

We are looking ahead to 2016 with confidence: We are growing dynamically thanks to the high reach of our TV stations and the consistent cross-linking of the TV portfolio with our digital offerings. The forecasts for the television business and our digital markets are positive. Against this backdrop, we expect consolidated revenues and the operational performance indicators EBITDA, recurring EBITDA and underlying net income to further increase in 2016. All segments will again contribute to this: In the TV segment, we want to continue generating solid growth at market level; in the Digital & Adjacent and Content Production & Global Sales segments we anticipate a considerable increase in revenues. In the medium-term, we are targeting consolidated revenues of EUR 4.2 billion by 2018, EUR 850 million more than originally planned. Recurring EBITDA is expected to rise to almost EUR 1.1 billion in the same period. Acquisitions will also accelerate profitable revenue growth in the future. At the same time, we are adhering to a target range for the leverage ratio of 1.5 to 2.5 times.

Our aim is to continuously increase the value of the Company and establish new revenue drivers from which our shareholders will profit in the long term. Free advertising time on TV gives us an additional investment currency. It enables us to invest in growth efficiently and without high amounts of cash while distributing an attractive dividend. We pay out around 80 % to 90 % of underlying net income as a dividend every year. We will continue to adhere to this shareholder-friendly dividend policy in the future.