Letter from the chairman

As another year goes by, I find myself addressing you, our shareholders, advertisers, audience, external partners, suppliers and other stakeholders, as we take stock of the year and share our views on 2023, a year in which we continued to accompany the Spanish public as a leading communications group and in which we remained faithful to our corporate purpose of generating meaningful reflection and emotion as key elements in changing our society for the better. Uncertainty remained the dominant trend in 2023, fuelled by the emergence of new armed conflicts, numerous social protests, or the relentless growth of artificial intelligence across all sectors, including the media. We are acutely aware of the benefits and challenges that this technological disruption brings to our industry. With that in mind, all of us at Atresmedia have drawn up a policy that ensures the ethical use of technology while placing the irrepressible talent of our professionals at the centre of everything we do. Aside from all these challenges, our industry is also undergoing constant transformation as the consumption habits of our viewers and listeners change over time.

However, we managed to successfully overcome these challenges and position ourselves, for yet another year, as the leading and most trusted communications group, and the first choice among the Spanish public. To succeed in this task, we reviewed our strategy in 2023 with the aim of keeping our objectives and projects up to date with the latest market trends, while also leveraging our role as a mouthpiece for the society we live in and drawing on the tenacity of the professionals and collaborators that make up Atresmedia.

Our audience and the industry strongly support our business model, predicated on quality, innovation, respect and commitment

Our audience and the industry strongly support our business model, predicated on quality, innovation, respect and commitment. And they support our pledge to deliver diverse content, which is based on successful entertainment formats, major television events and a rigorous and impartial range of news programmes.

Turning to our audiovisual business, Atresmedia Televisión increased its dominance in television audiences in Spain and cemented its leadership of the segment for the second year running. We achieved record results across all of our channels, with the Group commanding a 26.8% audience share. It also happened to be the year of the atresplayer revolution, which became the leading Spanish OTT platform, with more than 4.5 million unique users per month, leading the online consumption rankings and scooping the most important awards in the sector.

We have an unwavering commitment to rigorous reporting. Examples here include the Antena 3 Noticias, which extended its winning streak by making it six straight years as the leading news programme, and the news prowess of laSexta Noticias, which is one of the most widely followed daily programmes on La Sexta. I would also be remiss not to mention the success of Cara a Cara. El Debate, the only show in which the two main candidates for the Presidency of the Government, Pedro Sánchez and Alberto Núñez Feijóo, went head to head, and which was watched by 46.5% of the audience, making it the most watched non-sporting broadcast of the year. It therefore gives us great pride that Atresmedia Televisión once again led the way in news coverage in Spain and topped the table in credibility and trust, according to the prestigious Digital News Report 2023 drawn up by Reuters Institute and the University of Oxford.

Atresmedia Radio continues to lead the way when it comes to audio content and remains firmly committed to virtues such as credibility, viewpoint diversity and proximity. Not only that, because it also achieves very positive results, reflecting the strong performance of this line of business. Notably, Onda Cero recorded its best end of year since 2016, having reached almost two million listeners in 2023, and both Europa FM and Melodía FM continued to attract listeners with their positive and upbeat message.

The achievements of our audiovisual and radio business come on top of those made by our advertising and diversification lines. Innovation, differentiation and the integration of advertising in the content were the hallmarks of Atresmedia Publicidad’s strategy in 2023. Among its main novelties are the launch of a new commercial policy and of an audience targeting tool for television. Thanks to these achievements, and many others, together with the secure environment we guarantee, brands and agencies continue to choose us as their advertising space of choice. We are also hugely proud of our work with Atresmedia Diversificación, with milestones including the new agreements reached with pay TV operators and with large streaming platforms, which have allowed us to continue bringing atresplayer content to the international scene.

Aside from the obvious need to ensure the profitability of our business, we firmly believe in our responsibility as a media outlet for society and in the key role we play with each of our stakeholders. Sustainability has always been part of our corporate culture and we strive to extend it to all our activities. We therefore align our work with the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

For all these reasons, for yet another year I would like to highlight the ongoing progress we have made towards the social initiatives led by Fundación Atresmedia, which in 2023 consolidated and expanded the scope of its Efecto MIL, Mentes AMI and Amibox projects, which aim to promote media, information and digital literacy among children, young people and the educational community, all while promoting a safe and responsible media environment. We are also aware of the positive impact that our company can make through its social actions on both our employees and the broader society. We therefore continue to support initiatives that have proven their social worth, such as Ponle Freno, Constantes y Vitales, Tolerancia Cero, Crea Cultura or Levanta la Cabeza. We also continue to promote our wellestablished Corporate Volunteering Programme, through which our employees are able to learn about and contribute to various worthy social causes.

Although our audiovisual activity does not have a significant environmental impact, we are strongly committed to our surroundings and to the fight against climate change, which is a growing threat to global development and the effects of which we are already seeing. Notably, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated and verified our Net Zero strategy in 2023. We were also successful in reducing our carbon footprint and started working on driving more sustainable audiovisual productions. Meanwhile, we continue to embrace our role as a mouthpiece for positive climate action by broadcasting responsible content, which has a positive impact on attitudes, behaviours and public opinion on matters relating to the environment. Thanks to these efforts, we managed to achieve the highest score (A-) in recent years from the Carbon Disclosure Project.

Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to our shareholders, audience, partners, advertisers and suppliers. Without you, Atresmedia would not be the audiovisual force and, above all, the social benchmark that it is today. It gives me immense pride that we are all firmly committed to treading a path towards a society that demands quality, rigour, proximity and trust in the media.

JOSÉ CREUHERAS