German pay TV, SVoD services see record revenues in 2020

Pay TV and paid VoD revenues in German-speaking territories (2008-2021e, in billion euros)
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Pay TV and SVoD services are more popular than ever in Germany, with revenues generated by the sector topping €4bn (US$4.7bn) in 2020.

According to a report published by German commercial media association Vaunet, consumers paying for video content in the European country brought in €4.2bn last year, beating 2019’s total of €3.8bn.

Vaunet’s Pay TV & Paid VoD in Germany 2020/2021 report was presented in Berlin yesterday and highlighted how pay TV contributed the most to the record figure, accounting for €2.1bn in revenue.

Germany has a pay TV subscriber base of eight million people. The report notes that in December of last year, pay TV programmes reached 20 million Germans for the first time ever, while 200,000 more Germans a month interacted with pay TV than in 2019.

The total, revenue from pay TV and SVoD in Germany is expected to rise to €4.5bn in 2021, the report adds.

Pay TV and SVoD services available to German audiences include Sky, Joyn, TVNow and TNT, alongside Netflix and Amazon.

Vaunet MD Frank Giersberg said: “The revenues from pay TV and paid VoD have risen continually over the past 10 years, from €2bn in 2012 to more than €4bn today.”

Tim Werner, CEO of German media company Mainstream Media and chairman of the working group for pay TV at Vaunet, added that the range of programmes being offered to consumers is playing a large part in attracting subscribers. “We are currently all living in challenging times. In view of this, I am extremely pleased that our industry continues to perform so well,” Werner said.