The Video-on-Demand Market in Germany

Abstract

The markets for audiovisual content are subject to dynamic change. Where once “traditional” television was dominating, i.e. linear audiovisual media services, markets display nowadays the strong growth of different types of video-on-demand (VoD), i.e. nonlinear audiovisual media services including paid-for VoD such as Netflix and advertised-financed VoD like YouTube. This article aims at providing insights into the VoD market in general and the competitive environment in particular. For doing so, the authors first present recent developments in the German VoD market. In the second part of this article, the authors focus on the (perhaps special) role of YouTube in the market for audiovisual (online) services. Thereby arguments for and against YouTube exerting competitive pressure on i) other non-linear audiovisual media services (e.g. Netflix) as well as ii) on other linear audiovisual media service providers (TV stations) are discussed. The article concludes that there are numerous pros and cons speaking for a relevant role of YouTube for both markets.