Turnover in the German market for paid video streaming (Pay-VOD) has risen to €3.0 billion in 2020.
This corresponds to a growth of 28% compared to the previous year, according to analyses by German research and consultancy group Goldmedia based on VoD-Ratings.com. The Covid-19 pandemic as well as new platforms such as Disney+ are major reasons for the strong increase in the use of streaming services.
In 2021, a further increase in turnover of 25% to around €3.8 billion is expected. This means that the revenue volume of Netflix and Co. now clearly exceeds the market for linear pay-TV channels and is increasingly approaching the revenues in the German TV advertising market.
Subscription-financed streaming offers have the largest share: The S-VOD segment generated revenues of €2.5 billion, accounting for 83% of the total. Revenues from the online purchase of videos (EST, Electronic Sell Through) and the business with rental videos (T-VOD) are significantly lower (see chart).
The pandemic-related closure of cinemas not only leads to a greater demand for VOD services. It also brings them a large number of premieres that were originally intended for the cinema. What was once considered an indisputable rule for the exploitation windows – cinema first, then DVD, pay-TV and free-TV – was broken in 2020 by Corona and the cash-rich VOD providers.
As the pandemic continues, Goldmedia believes that demand for video streaming can be expected to remain above average. And even with a slow end to the Corona period, it is not yet clear how quickly opened cinemas will then fill up again with visitors. Many film studios have postponed their theatrical releases to the end of the year or are planning their first release on streaming services.
