German pay TV industry surpasses €4 billion in revenue

Revenues from pay TV and paid video revenues in Germany surpassed €4 billion for the first time in 2020.

According to the Association of Commercial Broadcasters and Audiovisual Services in Germany (VAUNET), revenues generated by pay TV and paid VOD reached €4.2 billion, up from €3.8 billion in 2019. The report expects continued growth in 2021 up to €4.5 billion.

Pay TV was the biggest segment of the market, with revenues of €2.1 billion. This encompasses SVOD, which was the largest single on-demand segment with a sales volume of €1.6 billion. SVOD is forecast to continue its growth to €1.8 billion in 2021.

The report goes on to note that there are 8 million pay TV subscribers across the country, while the number of SVOD subscribers amounted to 17.5 million in 2020 and should surpass 20 million this year. 

Frank Giersberg, managing director of VAUNET, said: “The revenues from pay TV and paid video on demand have risen continually over the past ten years, from 2 billion in 2012 to more than 4 billion euros today. Even during the years 2020 and 2021 which have been dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, this trend has been maintained. The growth drivers are video-on-demand offerings to which more and more people are subscribing and in many cases using to supplement pay TV.”