As we ramp up towards VideoWeek Cologne, a half-day conference on 19th September, VideoWeek takes a look at the current state of the German advertising market.
The first half of 2023 has proven challenging for European broadcasters, especially for German TV companies hit particularly hard by tough advertising conditions. But there are clearer skies on the horizon, with commercial broadcasters expressing optimism about market pressures alleviating in the second half of the year.
VideoWeek asked four executives for their assessment of the TV advertising market in Germany, and how they plan to navigate the road ahead.
Ralf Hape, SVP & MD Sky Media, Sky Deutschland
Rarely have we experienced a year like this, a year in which no one can really say where the market will land. In the first half of 2023, we – unexpectedly – saw a stronger decline in TV, but are now anticipating a slight recovery in the second half.
We are seeing a lot more budgets going into sales-related campaigns rather than pure branding. When it comes to sales campaigns measured by ROI, TV is no longer the only strong option. The CTV and VOD segment is growing exponentially. Sky Media has brought a lot of valuable inventory to the market on VOD on linear, we are strong in live sports, which is crisis resistant. So, bottom-line, we’re well positioned to handle more challenging situations, too.
The current circumstances make it even more important to interact with all market partners at eye level, and to be open on both sides. The linear TV market in Germany is under extreme pressure, but at the same time this development brings new opportunities and the chance to change things for the better.
Lennart Harendza, Managing Director, Seven.One Media
The advertising market in Germany overall faced various challenges in the first half of 2023. But we are seeing an especially noticeable level of interest from our advertising customers in the segment of our innovative advanced TV advertising products.
Under advanced TV, we bundle addressable TV, our cross-media advertising product, Total Video, based on CFlight, and programmatic TV. With these products, we are increasingly gaining advertising customers who previously allocated their budgets mainly in digital. In addition, the creative advertising concepts of our creative unit, Seven.One AdFactory, are proving to be very stable.
Dr. Jörg Richartz, VP Sales & Marketing TV, Deutsche Telekom
Even though gross revenues in the digital and German TV advertising market are declining, we are seeing continuous growth in customers and viewers with MagentaTV and MagentaSport, resulting in growing demand from advertisers.
High TV reach, TV advertising impact and quality environments will be supplemented with digital, precise targeting in the future. So instead of sending the same ad to a broad and general audience, the ads are played out dynamically in a targeted manner. In this way, we will enable advertisers to reach their target groups without large wastage.
Hans-Joachim Strauch, Managing Director, ZDF Werbefernsehen GmbH
Restrained consumer behavior also caused restraint in the German TV advertising market in the first quarter of 2023. In the middle of the year, in June and July, we recorded an upward trend. Now we are again experiencing a certain degree of uncertainty in the advertising market. But we look confidently into the second half of 2023 and are optimistic that the advertising market will continue to recover.
