ExchangeWire rounds up some of the biggest stories in the European digital advertising space.

1.Digital boom eases revenue-dip for RTL

Germany-based, pan-European broadcaster RTL this week announced that digital revenues jumped 26% in the year to 31 December, 2013, to hit €236 million thanks to organic growth and new acquisitions, despite an overall revenue drop of 1.8% to €5,889m during the period.

RTL claimed the slight dip reflected the overall bleak economic outlook of the continent during the period, but noted that digital revenues – primarily ad revenues – but added that it looked to make further acquisitions in the digital space to further its prominence within the business.

The pan-European broadcaster made several acquisitions of digital-only outfits throughout 2013, including several tie-ups with primarily digital players, as evidenced by launch of a multi-channel food platform network with Vice Media.

The group also revealed that its catch-up TV services and websites, including BroadbandTV, attracted a total of 16.8 billion online video views in 2013, up 143% year-on-year.

With the German programmatic market notable for the supposed unwillingness of media owners to sell their inventory via programmatic channels, perhaps this strategy is a sensible one if RTL’s sterling digital performance is to be considered. In fact sources are openly discussing the possibility of RTL entertaining the idea of opening up its inventory to programmatic exchanges, but the German-based broadcaster remains purse-lipped over its eventual decision to remain open or closed.

2. Axel Springer looks for digital acquisitions

German publisher Axel Springer this week announced it was to reorganise its business around its digital operations, and is on the lookout to buy new companies in the digital advertising space, according to the company’s chief executive Matthias Doepfner.

"We want to take advantage of further acquisition opportunities," he told a news conference to reveal the company’s annual results, where it also revealed revenues of €2,801.4m for 2013.

Digital media revenues rose by 6.7%t and the share of total revenues contributed by digital media activities rose from 44.6% in 2012 to 47.9% in 2013. With the German programmatic advertising sector forecast to double in 2014, it will be interesting to see whether Axel Springer will outright partner with a third party or build its own technology stack.

The little-known dynamics of the German ad market will be discussed at length At the Ad Trader Conference hosted in Berlin on 8 April. Tickets can be bought here.

3. Spotify Acquires The Echo Nest to ramp up Audio targeting

Sweden-based music streaming service Spotify has announced it is to acquire US-based The Echo Nest for an undisclosed fee in a deal that represents a rare occasion of a European tech company purchasing an US-based one.

A blog post announcing the tie-up reads: "This deal will allow Spotify to leverage The Echo Nest’s in depth musical understanding and tools for curation to drive music discovery for millions of users around the globe. The addition of The Echo Nest to Spotify will also strengthen Spotify’s ability to help brands and partners build amazing music experiences for their audiences."

With online audio one of the last media sectors to open up to programmatic trading, the significance of this deal in the sector cannot be underestimated and ExchangeWire sources say an impending deal between Spotify and one of the large industry trading desks is imminent. So the addition of extra profiling and targeting capability on the Spotify platform should prove significant.

4. Yahoo announces native trial on mobile

Yahoo is the latest Silicon Valley-based digital behemoth to nail its colours to the mobile and native advertising bandwagons with an Ad Age article this week revealing that it is attempting to emulate Facebook’s success with in-stream ad units encouraging audiences to install mobile apps.

Few details were disclosed on how the placements are being sold, but surely an integration with the Yahoo Ad Exchange cannot be too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Native ad exchanges are a nascent sector in programmatic, with mobile specialists providing the next phase of growth in the specialism. Earlier this week, ExchangeWire examined both the drivers of the trend, plus the (legitimate) reasons holding it back.