The German moving-image advertising market will continue to grow moderately in 2026, but will increasingly shift in favour of global platforms. According to the latest spring forecast by the Association of Private Media (VAUNET), turnover in the audiovisual advertising segments is set to rise by around 4.8 per cent to 5.73 billion euros.
Whilst the market as a whole is growing, the structural shift between traditional television and streaming is accelerating significantly.
TV advertising under pressure – streaming continues to grow
Traditional television advertising remains the largest segment, at around 3.12 billion euros, but has declined by around 4 per cent compared with the previous year. The downward trend of recent years is thus continuing.
The instream and streaming advertising sector is developing quite differently: here, VAUNET expects growth of around 18 per cent to approximately 2.61 billion euros. Streaming is thus increasingly becoming the key driver of growth in the moving image market.
Big Tech controls a growing share of the advertising market
Alongside the shift towards streaming, the influence of global platforms continues to grow. According to VAUNET, major international tech companies already account for around half of all advertising revenue in the German market.
Concentration is particularly pronounced in the instream video sector: Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance and Meta are expected to account for around 72 per cent of advertising revenue in this sector.
A structural problem for traditional media
VAUNET sees this as a growing erosion of the funding base for traditional media services. Whilst TV and radio broadcasters continue to achieve high reach figures, advertising budgets are increasingly shifting towards platforms that act as key distributors and „gatekeepers“ in the digital video market.
The association warns that this trend could have long-term implications for media diversity and the economic stability of journalistic and audiovisual services. Policy-makers and regulators must therefore ensure fairer competitive conditions between platforms and traditional media.