Streaming platforms in Germany

ARD Mediathek is the shared streaming and catch-up portal of Germany’s public broadcasting federation ARD, which is made up of nine regional broadcasters (Bayerischer Rundfunk, WDR, NDR, MDR and others). The app carries the live stream of Das Erste, the children’s channel KiKA, culture-focused 3sat and news network tagesschau24, with no ads and no subscription fee. The whole service is funded by the German broadcasting licence (Rundfunkbeitrag) and, as a result, geographically restricted to Germany.

Dyn Media is the Germany-based sports streaming service that went live in August 2023 with a simple thesis: give the disciplines that football pushes to the margins (handball, basketball, volleyball, ice hockey and women’s sport) a proper broadcasting home. The schedule spans the LIQUI MOLY HBL, 2. Handball-Bundesliga, the Basketball-Bundesliga (BBL), VBL volleyball and DEL2 ice hockey, all with in-house commentary and full-length studio shows around each game.

waipu.tv is the independent IPTV service run by Exaring, live since 2016 and positioned as the main alternative to Deutsche Telekom’s MagentaTV. Over any ordinary broadband connection subscribers get more than 200 channels in HD (and, on selected streams, 4K), a shared on-demand library and cloud DVR storage of up to a hundred hours. Three tiers are offered: a free Basic plan, Comfort and Perfect Plus at the top, which unlocks the largest recording quota. Billing is tied to a German address.

ZDFmediathek is the streaming and archive portal of Germany’s second public broadcaster, ZDF, which has been on air since 1963. The library pulls together live ZDF, the heute news bulletins, the Terra X documentary strand, culture from 3sat, children’s programming via KiKA and the broadcaster’s own fiction output (the long-running crime slots and the so-called Herzkino romance films). Everything is ad-free and funded by the German broadcasting licence, and the content is locked to German IP addresses.

Joyn is run by ProSiebenSat.1 and positions itself as a hybrid between free TV and on-demand. The ad-supported free tier bundles live streams from over a hundred channels (ProSieben, Sat.1, Kabel eins plus partner networks like DMAX or Welt) with catch-up for what has just aired. Joyn PLUS+ layers paid content on top: an ad-free viewing mode, selected pay-TV channels in HD, exclusive scripted originals and coverage of European football tournaments. Availability is limited to Germany and Austria.

ARTE is the Franco-German public cultural broadcaster, on air since 1992 and run by ARTE GEIE, a European Economic Interest Group headquartered in Strasbourg. The arte.tv platform streams documentaries, arthouse cinema, classical and contemporary concerts, stage recordings and in-depth European current affairs, all without ads and free of charge. Most programmes ship with subtitles in English, German, French, Spanish, Polish or Italian.

Sky Deutschland was created in 2009 through the rebrand of Premiere and is today part of Comcast’s Sky Group. The offering splits into the traditional satellite and cable packages sold under Sky Q and a streaming-only alternative called WOW, which is priced month-to-month with no long-term commitment. The headline rights are the Bundesliga, Formula 1 and the full HBO catalogue. The service is distributed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

MagentaTV is Deutsche Telekom’s IPTV service, launched in 2017 as a replacement for the older Entertain TV. Subscribers get more than 100 German and international channels in HD and 4K, an in-house on-demand library called Megathek with productions from MegaNow and ARD Degeto, and the option to fold Netflix, Disney+ or RTL+ into a single Telekom bill. The Flex, Smart and MegaStream tiers differ in channel count, 4K availability and whether a dedicated set-top box is required.

ProSieben is the Germany-facing commercial channel of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, on air since 1989 and aimed at a younger, family audience. The grid is built from imported US drama and comedy (typically dubbed in German), long-running entertainment shows like Joko & Klaas Live or The Masked Singer Germany, and the Galileo and TV total strands. The live stream and catch-up sit on the free Joyn platform.

RTL+ is the streaming platform of Bertelsmann-owned RTL Deutschland, launched back in 2007 as RTL Now before going through two rebrands (TVNow, then RTL+ in late 2021). On top of the expected TV catalogue (reality formats like Deutschland sucht den Superstar, daily soaps, plus Formula 1 and, in some seasons, NFL coverage) the service bundles a music library powered by Deezer and an audiobook catalogue. The Premium, Max and Family tiers differ in simultaneous streams and music access.

SAT.1 is the second pillar of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE and, after launching in 1984 as PKS, was the first privately-owned television station in Germany. Unlike its younger sister ProSieben, it targets an older, family-oriented audience through the long-running Frühstücksfernsehen breakfast show, homegrown crime dramas such as Der letzte Bulle and a rotating slate of entertainment formats. Live and catch-up streaming is free via sat1.de and Joyn.

ServusTV is the Austrian commercial broadcaster run by Red Bull Media House, created in 2009 by rebranding the smaller Salzburg TV. The viewing proposition is unusual: top-tier motorsport (Formula 1 for Austrian and Bavarian audiences, MotoGP), selected UEFA Champions League rights in some seasons, a heavy slate of alpine documentaries and cultural programming, plus talk and debate shows. The live stream and catch-up are free but geo-restricted to the DACH region.

Play SRF is the streaming and catch-up portal of Swiss public broadcaster SRF, part of the SRG SSR group and aimed at the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Viewers get live feeds of SRF 1, SRF zwei and SRF info, the Tagesschau news bulletins, the political debate show Arena, Swiss-made drama like Tschugger and Neumatt, and full coverage of the Alpine Ski World Cup. The service is funded through the Serafe licence fee and geo-restricted to Switzerland.

WOW is the Sky Group’s streaming alternative to the traditional Sky Deutschland satellite bundle, marketed on a month-to-month basis with no contract lock-in. Launched in June 2022 to replace Sky Ticket, it divides the catalogue into three passes: Filme & Serien (HBO Max titles, Sky Cinema premieres), Live-Sport (Bundesliga, Premier League, Formula 1 and parts of UEFA) and an optional Premium add-on that unlocks 4K and Dolby Atmos. Availability is limited to Germany and Austria.

DAZN is a sports-first streaming service built to compete with traditional pay-TV sports channels. The schedule shifts dramatically from country to country: in Germany it carries the Bundesliga and Champions League matches, in Italy it owns the majority of Serie A, in Japan it runs baseball and boxing. The global side of DAZN remains its combat sports division, where it has become one of the biggest buyers of marquee boxing pay-per-view events.

Netflix didn’t invent streaming but it set the rules everyone else now plays by. With 325 million paying subscribers across 190 countries and a stable of shows like Squid Game, Stranger Things and Wednesday, it still defines what mainstream streaming looks like. Recent pushes into live sports and ad-supported plans show the company is willing to bend its own playbook when the market demands it.

Amazon Prime Video lives inside the wider Prime bundle, so streaming is only part of what you’re paying for. The content mix is unusual: splashy originals (The Boys, The Rings of Power, Reacher) sit next to a huge catalogue of movies available to rent or buy and a growing set of optional add-on Channels. Prime has also turned into a heavyweight in live sports, from Thursday Night Football to Champions League in select markets.

Disney+ is the one place where Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic live under the same roof, plus the general-entertainment arm Star. Launched globally in November 2019 and in the Czech Republic in June 2022, it keeps things simple with two ad-free tiers: Standard (Full HD, two streams) and Premium (4K HDR, Dolby Atmos, four streams). Annual billing knocks roughly two months off the price.

Max is Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempt to keep everything important in one app: HBO’s prestige catalogue, the DC Universe, Warner Bros. theatrical slate and the reality-heavy Discovery library. The product still leans on HBO’s reputation for Sunday-night event TV (Succession, The Last of Us, House of the Dragon) but the expanded library means there is something for almost every household.

Apple TV+ takes the opposite approach to almost everyone else: no licensed back catalogue, only original productions. The result is a comparatively small library where misses are rare and hits like Ted Lasso, Severance, Slow Horses and For All Mankind have picked up Emmys. A single tier covers 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos, and the service is bundled into Apple One for households already invested in the Apple ecosystem.

Paramount+ gathers the Paramount Pictures film vault, CBS prime-time drama, Nickelodeon kids programming and MTV reality into one subscription. The backbone is the Taylor Sheridan universe (Yellowstone, 1923, Lawman: Bass Reeves), with Star Trek carrying the sci-fi side and South Park providing the decades-old evergreen. In select regions the service also carries NFL games and UEFA Champions League, blurring the line with traditional sports packages.