Germany Media and Entertainment Filmed Industry Export Market

Introduction to the German Filmed Entertainment & Streaming Market

• Germany continues to be a large market for filmed entertainment from the U.S. Germany’s top-grossing films are consistently Hollywood productions with a plethora of opportunities for international co-productions and funding. COVID-19 has changed the film industry in Germany, however, perhaps permanently. During lockdowns, there was a mass migration of German viewers to streaming platforms, catalyzing the development of German and internationally co-produced streaming platforms to compete with the likes of Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, and AppleTV+. 

• Television is still very popular in Germany. In 2020, 72 percent of the German population watched TV on a daily basis.  

• DVD users as well as movie-theater goers have steadily declined since 2015. More and more Germans are choosing to watch series and movies via the internet. There is a large, American-dominated streaming market in Germany, with 81% of households featuring a subscription video on demand (SVOD) user in Germany as of 2021. This represents a significant increase from 2017, when the corresponding figure was only 51%. According to Statista, Netflix (with 48% of market share) dominates the SVOD market in Germany, with Amazon Prime Video (at 11% of market share) in second place. 

• Nearly all foreign language shows and films in Germany are dubbed and most local content is produced in German. Nonetheless, many younger Germans choose to watch English-language content in its original language. In 2022, 18 of the 20 most successful films in Germany were American productions originally produced in English. Only 27 percent of cinema goers watched German films in 2019, leaving a large share of the market to international films. 

For more information, contact Tobias Wester, Head of Section Tobias.Wester@trade.gov. Phone: +49-69-7535-3159 

08/30/2023