Message from the Chief Executive Officer

In this report, Atresmedia explains how its purpose and strategy, drawing strength from the talent of our professionals, continued to serve society this year with a rich and diverse range of quality entertainment and accurate, independent news coverage.

For the Group, 2020 was the most challenging year it ever faced. Our industry was hit by the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and volatility in society, the economy, finance and politics. Even in that climate of uncertainty, Atresmedia proved able to respond swiftly and effectively, keeping our people safe, securing business continuity and delivering on our commitment to our audience and our advertisers.

In 2021, however, the trend turned. While average television consumption dropped away from its peak in 2020 and gradually returned to its pre-pandemic level, Spain’s GDP grew by 5%, and advertising spend rose accordingly. Television advertising, the Group’s main source of revenue, began to recover and was up by 9% in 2021 compared to 2020, while Atresmedia’s total revenue grew by 11.2%.

Although uncertainty remains, the economy is recovering. Our 2021 performance attests that we have taken the right path, as shown by the renewed confidence of our audience and advertisers. We ended the year with total revenue of EUR 963.3 million, EBITDA of EUR 172.5 million and consolidated profit of EUR 118.5 million. These excellent figures exceeded our initial expectations and motivate us all the more powerfully to keep growing. Our belief in our business model, guided by principles of quality, innovation and social sensitivity, continued to deliver strong results. Surveys showed we are perceived as the best media company across variables such as quality, variety and popular appeal in our content, and in our social sensitivity and viewpoint diversity.

We are grateful for our major achievements in 2021. Every day, 21 million people chose our channels for news and entertainment, making us the Spanish communications group with the largest daily audience for our content. In addition, close to 4 million people tuned into our radio stations every day. Our international channels, moreover, now reach 57 million homes around the world.

We ended the year once again as the leading Group, with a share of 27.3%, our best figure of the past 7 years; we were also the only major group to grow. Antena 3 is the most-watched channel (13.8% audience share) and leads the prime-time slot. laSexta and our specialty channels Nova, Neox, Mega and Atreseries lead their respective segments.

In addition, our news coverage set a new record. At a time when reliable information became more urgently needed than ever, our journalists continued to reports the news reliably and responsibly. Antena 3’s television news programmes were the most-watched for the fourth consecutive year. They hit highest audience figures in 14 years, with nearly 2.5 million viewers per day. laSexta Noticias, for its part, beat its all-time record, reaching an average of 1.9 million viewers per day.

These figures, added to the 2.9 million people who tuned in daily to Onda Cero and Europa FM’s 890,000 listeners, show that our long-term commitment to quality, innovation and audience engagement is on the right track.

Our success in 2021 isn’t just about excellent figures, however. We also received a wide range of awards. Roberto Leal won the Ondas Award for Best Presenter for his work at the helm of Pasapalabra, the most-viewed daily game show. The last interview ever given by Pau Donés, singer of Jarabe de Palo, with Jordi Évole, was recognised with the Ondas Award for Best Documentary or Documentary Series. The 2021 Iris Awards, for their part, again recognized Antena 3 Noticias 2 and Vicente Vallés, respectively, as best news programme and news anchor, and Roberto Leal as best programme presenter.

Our approach to expanding our traditional business through convergence with the digital world is also bringing excellent results. While 2020 was a year of online broadcasting hits, in 2021 Atresmedia cemented its leadership in the digital environment. We ended the year with 27.9 million unique visitors to our channels’ websites. The Atresplayer platform reached 3.4 million unique visitors, and Atresplayer Premium, our paywalled OTT, became firmly established as a benchmark thanks to the quality and variety of its offerings: exclusive premières ahead of linear channels and ground-breaking original content like Cardo, which garnered two Feroz awards and won national and international acclaim as one of the best fiction productions of the year. At the end of 2021, furthermore, the Group welcomed Diariomotor.com, the leading automotive news website in Spain, with more than 2.4 million unique monthly users.

WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR OUR MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2021. EVERY DAY, 21 MILLION PEOPLE CHOSE OUR CHANNELS FOR NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT, MAKING US THE SPANISH COMMUNICATIONS GROUP WITH THE LARGEST DAILY AUDIENCE FOR OUR CONTENT

Atresmedia also continued its firm support for the Spanish film industry. We released films such as A todo tren: Destino Asturias, the highest-grossing Spanish film of the year with over EUR 8.4 million at the box office and more than 1.5 million viewers, and Las leyes de la Frontera, winner of five Goya awards. We also began shooting eleven new films.

The success of Atresmedia Diversificación, our non-advertising business division, demonstrates that daring to build innovative business models can be an attractive alternative in uncertain times involving tough challenges. This year, the sale of Marmota enabled Atresmedia Diversificación to post record revenue and profit, accounting for more than 10% of the Group’s earnings.

In this unique year, we cannot take stock of our financial and operating results without also examining the impact on communities of our business, in the broadest sense of the term. Our role as a media outlet kept society accurately informed and offered quality entertainment. We also bolstered our social action through the initiatives of Compromiso Atresmedia, our corporate volunteering programme, and the activities of the Atresmedia Foundation. Finally, we continued to strengthen our internal sustainability strategy.

Guided by these principles, Atresmedia was the first media group in Spain and one ofthe first in Europe to sign a sustainable finance deal: we converted a syndicated loan for EUR 250 million into a sustainable transaction by linking it to the performance of three ESG indicators, including our score in the CDP climate change report, in which in 2021 Atresmedia achieved a B score. In addition, again this year, we were listed on the FTSE4Good Ibex sustainability index.

We continued to deliver on our commitment to job stability and employee safety. We made available all the healthcare measures required to enable our people to work safely. Once again this year, I would like to express my gratitude for the commitment and excellent work of our employees despite the difficult circumstances, and my joy at the sincere pride of belonging that they show towards Atresmedia.

We face the future with the goal of continuing to grow, driven on by our values of quality, independence, innovation and social outreach, and reinforced by the trust of our audience, our advertisers and all of you.