German media giant Bertelsmann closed out 2022 on a high, with overall revenues hitting $21.9 billion (€20.2 billion), the highest in the company’s history. But the group, which controls European TV conglomerate Rtl Group and production subsidiary Fremantle, music division BMG and leading publisher Penguin Random House, saw profits more than half to $1.14 billion (€1.05 billion) compared to 2021 as Bertelsmann invests heavily to juice the creative and streaming sides of its businesses.

That M&a strategy is most evident at Fremantle, where revenue jumped 22 percent year-on-year to $2.49 billion (€2.3 billion), helped by the acquisitions of a 70 percent stake in leading Italian TV producer Lux Vide (Devils, Medici) and 51 percent of the Irish group Element Pictures (Normal People, The Favourite). Bertelsmann Chairman and CEO Thomas Rabe has set Fremantle a revenue target of $3.25 billion (€3 billion) by 2025.

BMG, which acquired the German music label Telamo last year, continues to gobble up music rights, in 2022 picking up the
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