YouTube maintains its dominance as streaming services struggle
Germany's Streaming Landscape Shows Shift Towards Middle-Aged Demographic
Streaming services in Germany are witnessing a significant shift in their user base, with the 30 to 49-year-old demographic emerging as a key growth area. This trend is primarily driven by their increasing digital media consumption habits, combined with lifestyle changes and a strong openness to new technologies and on-demand content.
According to the "Screens in Motion 2025" study, which surveyed around 2,000 people in early March, this age group is seen as having greater potential for new customers due to their established purchasing power, comfort with digital platforms, and evolving entertainment preferences that favor personalized and convenient content access.
Key contributing factors to this shift include digital adoption and lifestyle, content preferences and diversity, economic stability and spending power, hybrid consumption habits, and high potential for growth.
Adults aged 30 to 49 often balance work and family life, making flexible, on-demand streaming more appealing than traditional scheduled TV. They are comfortable with online platforms, enabling easy adoption of streaming services. This age group is also more likely to integrate streaming into daily routines, such as watching content during commutes or while multitasking.
They seek diverse content that meets varied tastes—including movies, TV shows, sports, documentaries, and niche genres. Streaming platforms cater well to these needs through extensive libraries and personalized recommendations. Compared with younger groups, the 30-49 range generally has higher disposable income, making subscriptions and premium streaming choices financially accessible.
The middle-aged group is also more likely to combine streaming with other media consumption, increasing engagement and retention potential. Similar to trends in other domains, such as fitness where virtual and physical services blend, this age group often combines streaming with other media consumption.
YouTube is the third most popular streaming platform in Germany, following Netflix and Prime Video. The 30 to 49 age group has surpassed younger viewers in terms of streaming subscription usage. The price-performance ratio is a significant factor in the popularity of YouTube in Germany.
Linear TV usage in Germany has decreased by 45 minutes per day compared to 2019, but it's worth noting that the viewing time lost by classic TV does not solely go to streaming subscription providers. Broadcasters' own media libraries have also benefited from the streaming boom, as their viewing time has increased.
The older audience in Germany is seen as having greater potential for new streaming customers. Those over 50 in Germany currently watch 42 minutes of streaming content daily, an increase of 25 minutes. In contrast, younger subscribers have seen a slight decrease in daily streaming viewing time, from 2 minutes to 1 hour 16 minutes, since 2019.
The study's authors have identified a "certain saturation" in Germany's streaming market for the first time, indicating a potential plateau in the number of new subscribers. However, the 30 to 49-year-old demographic still offers high potential for growth, as it moves away from cable TV but hasn’t yet fully saturated its streaming subscriptions. This makes them a strategic target for providers seeking to acquire new subscribers.
While direct German-specific statistics for this exact age range and streaming are not available, these insights align with known global and European digital media consumption patterns reflected in related research on online fitness and entertainment platforms, which highlight growing spending and high engagement with online services within adult age brackets.
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- The growing adoption of streaming services among the 30 to 49-year-old demographic in Germany is largely influenced by their comfort with new technologies and on-demand content.
- The increased digital media consumption habits, combined with their established purchasing power, make adults aged 30 to 49 a potential strategic target for streaming service providers seeking to acquire new subscribers.
