ProSiebenSat.1 Group has acquired the outstanding 50% of the shares in the streaming platform Joyn from Warner Bros. Discovery for an undisclosed fee.
The joint venture was established with Discovery in 2017 and has been operating under the name Joyn since 2019. It has focused on a strong, free and thus advertising-financed offering, as well as an exclusive subscription service, and currently has over 30 million app downloads and 4 million unique users per month.
In the future, Joyn will be transferred to ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE’s Entertainment segment as a wholly owned subsidiary. ProSiebenSat.1 is thus making the streaming platform an integral part of its value chain and placing Joyn at the centre of its digital entertainment presence. In addition to content from ProSiebenSat.1 and other content partners, Joyn users will continue to have on-demand access to free, advertising-financed content from Warner Bros. Discovery. Users of the Joyn PLUS+ subscription offer can also obtain access to discovery+, which entitles them to use the streaming service for 12 months. Antitrust clearance of the acquisition is expected from October 1, 2022.
Commenting on the transaction, Rainer Beaujean, group CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, said: “By acquiring all shares in Joyn, we are continuing the digital transformation of ProSiebenSat.1 Group. With Joyn having launched as a pure streaming platform three years ago, we are now making it the first point of contact in our digital ecosystem and thereby benefiting from synergies within the Group. In line with our strategy, we are extending our reach, especially among young target groups, and creating new opportunities for monetization. Full control over Joyn gives us the entrepreneurial flexibility we need.
“In the future, we will place a sharper focus on interaction with and between users and community management. Therefore, we are integrating our streaming platform more closely with our influencer business and our brands from the Dating & Video and Commerce & Ventures segments. The group’s digital ecosystem also includes the single-sign-on registration service 7Pass with its more than 20 million registered users. Together with Joyn, it will enable us to address users even more targeted in the future”.
Wolfgang Link, member of the executive board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE (responsible for Entertainment), added: “Together with Warner Bros. Discovery, we have developed Joyn into a successful and relevant player in the German streaming market, and are delighted that their content will remain available on Joyn. With the complete takeover, we are making Joyn the most important cornerstone of our digital content offering from now on – and we have big growth plans: We are further expanding our offering with local, relevant live content, thus successively increasing our marketable total reach and opening up additional monetisation opportunities – because we want to make Joyn the largest freely accessible streaming platform for premium video content in the German-speaking region.
“We have many new program highlights in the pipeline: In addition to more and more previews from our group of stations, Joyn will expand its range of live events and Joyn Originals with the stars of the very young target group and attention-grabbing reality formats such as ‘Love is King’ and the impro series ‘Intimate’. In doing so, Joyn will remain an aggregator platform in the live streaming segment, and we look forward to new content partnerships”.
Ralf Peter Gierig, member of the executive board & group CFO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, said: “As a result of the complete takeover, Joyn will be fully consolidated in the fourth quarter of 2022. As expected, the Group will initially be impacted at the level of adjusted EBITDA. Nevertheless, the Group still expects this year’s adjusted net income to be around the previous year’s level.
“The adjusted net income effects will already be balanced in 2023, and clearly positive contributions to the group’s adjusted net income will be generated from 2024 onwards. In the years to come, our Group will also be able to use income tax loss carry-forwards at the level of Joyn of well over EUR 400 million, which could not have been utilized by us in this amount in the previous joint venture. With regard to dividend, this is important news for all shareholders.”
After the decision by Discovery to launch its own subscription service Discovery+ in Germany, it remained uncertain whether the US company would continue its local joint venture Joyn with ProSiebenSat.1. With today’s announcement, it is clear that Warner Bros. Discovery will follow its own strategy in the German streaming market with Joyn and Discovery+ now competing for viewers and subscribers.