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 CEE
Streaming drives revenue, but profitability of European media companies declines
 17 Sep 2025
The European media market is growing thanks to streaming, online advertising, and new distribution models. However, the profitability of media companies is declining, and an increasing share of the market is controlled by American platforms. These are the key findings of the latest Media Industry Outlook report by Creative Europe.

The European media sector has seen rising revenues in recent years, but simultaneously faces shrinking profitability. According to the latest data published in The European Media Industry Outlook 2025 report, the sector generated approximately €158 billion in 2024, representing a 6% growth compared to 2022. Streaming, the development of immersive technologies, and growth in advertising from online platforms are the biggest contributors to this growth. Broadcasting remains the strongest segment. While revenues for traditional news media are slightly declining, they have managed to maintain relatively stable margins.

The market structure varies significantly by segment. The audiovisual sector is fragmented between national players, smaller producers, and global platforms, with the top 100 companies in Europe growing twice as fast as the market as a whole. Conversely, the video game and extended reality (XR) industries are dominated by a few multinational firms—for example, Meta controls over half of the European XR technology market.

A significant portion of media companies' revenue is threatened by online platforms like Google, Meta, and YouTube, whose advertising revenues now exceed those of traditional news media. Although the European media market mirrors the development in the United States, it lags in terms of revenue volume, generating roughly half of the American total despite the EU having a population 30% larger.

The profitability of the media sector has been declining over the past decade. According to the EBITDA metric, average profitability decreased across most media industries between 2014 and 2023. The revenues and profits of media companies thus show significant cyclicality and a strong dependence on technological innovation and changing consumer behavior.

Online Video Now Surpasses Pay-TV

The audiovisual industry is the largest source of revenue and jobs in European media. It has rapidly expanded to include VoD services, while traditional segments like DVD have virtually disappeared. The main revenue sources remain pay-TV, television advertising, and public funding, but their importance is gradually declining in favor of online platforms and streaming.

The share of broadcasters in total revenue fell from 75% in 2018 to an expected 53% in 2025, while SVoD (subscription video-on-demand revenue) is projected to grow to 17% by the same year. Cinema revenues have recovered since the pandemic but have still not reached pre-COVID levels.

Online video advertising has become the second-largest revenue source and is expected to nearly double by 2029. Both streaming services and broadcasters are transitioning to hybrid models that combine advertising and subscriptions. Nevertheless, the market remains highly concentrated, and US companies are increasing their share.

Ad-Supported Models Are in Vogue

Streaming services are increasingly combining subscriptions with advertising models. Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+ have introduced lower-priced tiers in exchange for watching ads, with Netflix even doubling its advertising revenue in the past year. This approach allows them to reach more price-sensitive viewers. European entities are developing similar strategies, such as Spain's Atresmedia with its Atresplayer platform.

The importance of connected TV (CTV) is also growing rapidly, reaching nearly 90% of consumers in developed markets in 2023. Advertisers are testing new formats here, such as interactive ads with QR codes or voice control. Hardware manufacturers are also entering the smart TV environment: services like Samsung TV Plus or LG Channels offer free, ad-supported content.

The segment showing the most dynamic growth is FAST (free ad-supported streaming television), which provides viewers with freely available linear channels with ads. Its revenue is expected to grow by more than a fifth by 2029. Major providers like Pluto TV, Rakuten TV, and Roku Channel are already active in the EU.

Despite higher investments, European content remains behind American productions in terms of viewership. On SVoD platforms, European works make up a fifth of the catalogs but account for only 16% of viewing time, while American titles capture two-thirds of the screen market.

The use of artificial intelligence is also growing rapidly, employed by 39% of European audiovisual firms in 2024, up from 21% a year earlier. The global market for generative AI in media is expected to reach €48 billion by 2028. However, a brake on development in Europe is a shortage of specialist skills, particularly in virtual production and post-production, where 80% of companies report difficulties in hiring specialists.
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