”During the first half of 2025, our operational earnings and free cash flow improved driven by Learning. Net sales grew in Poland, the Netherlands and Italy, and this growth more than offset the expected lower sales in Spain ahead of the upcoming curriculum renewal in 2026. In Poland, the growth was mainly from our digital learning platform sales. Overall in Learning, our cost base improved as we continued to see the positive impacts of Program Solar. Together with the net sales growth, this improved Learning’s operational earnings for the first six months.
We continued to advance the use of AI in both businesses with a strong emphasis on its responsible use and human oversight. Across Learning, we are increasingly using AI-based tools to enhance efficiency in content creation and introducing new digital tools to the market. These included for example a new learning solution that personalises after-school studying by combining curriculum-based activities and interactive cognitive games. Our updated blended learning materials included, for example, the interactive Smartbook for three secondary school subjects in Poland. In Media Finland, the newsrooms have focused on automating news gathering processes and improving image tooling with AI. Automated translations and story drafting have been tested in public pilots. In radio, AI-generated localised weather forecasts are in daily use. The overall data capabilities have been improved to enable the use of AI-assisted reporting and analysis tools.
In Media Finland, subscription sales increased slightly driven by continued good development of the SVOD service Ruutu+. Also the digital news media subscriptions and +Kaikki, a bundle subscription including all of Media Finland's digital consumer products, continued to perform well. As we expected after the first quarter, the softness in the Finnish advertising market continued against a somewhat more demanding comparison of the second quarter of 2024. Our advertising sales decreased, mainly driven by lower TV advertising, including the impact of ending the reselling of a third-party TV channel advertising at the beginning of the year. Operational earnings were impacted in particular by the lower advertising sales, while we continue to expect operational EBIT to be relatively stable for the full-year.