VAUNET warns of growing Big Tech dominance in German advertising market
May 21, 2026 08.21 Europe/London By Jörn Krieger

German industry association VAUNET forecasts that advertising revenue from TV, video streaming and audio media in Germany will grow by 4.3% to €6.55 billion in 2026, as streaming continues to gain share at the expense of traditional linear media and global technology platforms further strengthen their dominance of the market.

The VAUNET spring forecast projects total advertising revenues across the audio and audiovisual sectors to rise from €6.28 billion in 2025 by 4.3% to €6.55 billion in 2026. Growth last year reached only 0.9%.

According to the industry body, the shift from linear television and radio towards streaming services is continuing, with the largest beneficiaries being global platform operators including Alphabet, Amazon, ByteDance and Meta. VAUNET expects those companies to account for 72% of in-stream video advertising revenues in Germany in 2026, equivalent to around €1.9 billion.

Frank Giersberg, Managing Director at VAUNET, said the advertising market figures reflected the “rapid transformation of the media market”.

“Even though TV and radio remain the segments with the highest revenues, streaming services continue to gain ground,” Giersberg added. “Commercial media companies are key drivers and shapers of this transformation. Nevertheless, they are losing substantial advertising market shares to the Big Tech platforms, which can leverage their market power and gatekeeper function while operating under lighter regulation.”

He stressed that one in every two euros spent in the German advertising market already goes to global technology platforms.

Claus Grewenig, Chairman of the Board at VAUNET, warned that the growing dominance of platform operators could threaten media plurality and democratic discourse.

“Commercial TV, video streaming and audio media help safeguard diversity of opinion and democracy against disinformation,” Grewenig said. “Even so, these platforms act as gatekeepers and are capturing an ever-growing share of advertising revenues – to the detriment of media financing.”

VAUNET called on German federal and regional policymakers, alongside European institutions, to strengthen the financial foundations of commercial media companies and establish what it described as a “level playing field” with platform providers.

In the audiovisual sector, VAUNET forecasts television and in-stream video advertising revenue to increase by 4.8% to €5.73 billion in 2026. Traditional TV advertising revenue is expected to decline by 4% to €3.12 billion, while in-stream video advertising revenue is projected to grow by 18% to €2.61 billion.

The figures follow a difficult 2025 for linear television advertising, which declined by 9.2% to €3.25 billion. In contrast, in-stream video advertising revenue rose by 22.3% to €2.22 billion.

Audio advertising revenue is forecast to grow modestly by 1.3% to €821 million in 2026. Radio advertising revenue is expected to remain stable at €677 million, while in-stream audio advertising revenue is projected to increase by 8% to €144 million.

Last year, radio advertising revenue fell by 4.3% to €677 million, while in-stream audio advertising grew by 11% to €133 million.

According to VAUNET, the market share of the largest global technology platforms across the overall advertising market, both in Germany and internationally, is now estimated at around 50%.

The association noted that its latest figures include revalidated in-stream video advertising data for 2023 and 2024, making comparisons with some earlier VAUNET publications more limited.