SVOD services are becoming increasingly competitive for first windows of premium drama
Recently a report by German price comparison company Verifox suggested 52% of Germans now pay for TV and streaming services*. Germany has traditionally been a strong Free TV market and these findings correlate with new data from Show Tracker, showing that Pay TV Channels and SVOD services in particular, are becoming increasingly competitive for first windows of premium drama, in order to maximise the appeal of their content propositions. The focus of Free TV owners in Germany is less on international acquisitions and increasingly centred on local productions.
9% of shows from the 2018/19 US annual season have been acquired by a Free TV channel, this is down from 17% in the previous season. SVOD services are taking a higher percentage of first window in Germany year-on-year, increasing from 41% to 51%.
*Source: Digital TV Europe, 2019
Since its launch in Germany, all new Starz' Originals will be placed on Lionsgate’s StarzPlay streaming service (including ‘The Rook’, ‘Spanish Princess’), with the service also buying content from other major distributors (NBCU’s 'The Act’, Paramount’s ‘Catch-22’).
The RTL owned ‘TV Now Premium’ (Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, Light as a Feather) and Deutsche Telekom’s ‘Magenta TV’ (The First, My Brilliant Friend) are both offering customers a growing library of premium scripted drama. While it is still early days for the ProSieben and Discovery joint venture Joyn, we might expect this platform to offer exclusive premium drama in future to compete.
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