Pay-TV Celebrates New Audience Records and Invests in Local In-house Productions

Frank Giersberg, Member of the Board of Directors, Market and Business Development at VAUNET: „Pay-TV is set to continue its successful growth and pay-TV channels are investing more than ever before in programming. Programme-related investments amounted to some 2 billion euros in 2017, of which as much as a three-digit million fig-ure was attributable to local in-house productions.“

Hannes Heyelmann, Managing Director, Central and Eastern Europe and International Programming Strategy at Turner: „In Germany, pay-TV is producing more series than ever before. We are delighted as this is important for the entire industry. As the pioneer in Germany in the field of local original pay-TV productions, we see this development as re-assurance that our strategy is the right one and we will continue investing in original programming for our TNT Serie and TNT Comedy channel. In 2018, we have already significantly increased our output and are producing four original series including one co-production with HBO Europe.“

Katharina Behrends, Managing Director Central and Eastern Europe at NBCUniversal International Networks: „Pay-TV has long since become a key driver in promoting the positive reception of German productions abroad. In fact, creative programme develop-ment on the part of broadcasters and their aim to supply original content for best-quality entertainment have played a major part in helping German-speaking series productions become a factor to be taken seriously in the international marketplace and extend their appeal far beyond the German-speaking area.“

Marcus Ammon, Senior Vice President Film & Entertainment at Sky Deutschland: „Bab-ylon Berlin“, „X Factor“, „Das Boot“, „Acht Tage“ and „Der Pass“ – in terms of in-house productions, Sky is more active than ever before and is reaching an audience of millions. Both our customers and the industry as a whole are able to benefit from this. An aware-ness of pay-TV as a place for creative, out of the ordinary, entertaining stories has been acquired by both the industry and viewers. This is demonstrated by the rising number of viewers and the sustained positive overall trend recorded by the pay-TV sector in Ger-many and Austria. Offering a unique line-up of in-house productions, the coming months will make Sky a place to be for viewers.“

Dr. Patrick Hörl, Managing Director of SPIEGEL Geschichte & SPIEGEL TV Wissen: “Pay-TV channels and operators play a crucial, and often indispensable role in financing premium content. Many films and series would simply not get made without pay-TV money.”

Susanne Aigner-Drews, SVP and General Manager Discovery Deutschland: „Pay-TV has a great emotional impact. Here viewers experience strong brands, high-quality pro-grammes and a diversity of offerings. Thanks to unusual perspectives and innovative technology, such as HD and 4K, pay-TV is setting trends and standards in the television sector. As Discovery, we stand for premium content based on a high level of investment. The exceptional result can be seen every second, for instance in the form of visually stunning documentaries on DISCOVERY CHANNEL. As a result of innovative storytell-ing, our pay-TV documentaries are presented in a highly attractive way and create mo-ments that you don´t forget. In this way, we make a significant contribution to the great diversity offered by German pay-TV.“

Dr. Andreas Weinek, Managing Director of A+E Networks Germany: „Each year, A+E Networks produces more than 1,400 hours of new programming for its brand portfolio, from which our HISTORY and A&E channels benefit. Their localisation does for instance guarantee our partnership with ZDF, but for some years now, our local in-house produc-tions have been an especially important mainstay, these being distributed on an interna-tional scale thanks to strong support from our parent company A+E. Especially docu-mentaries like „Die Befreier“ are, in addition to being broadcast, frequently shown at rel-evant festivals, in schools and as part of commemorative events, which shows that the effort and investment involved are in many respects worthwhile.“