How many streaming services are there in Germany?
Everyone knows Netflix, Amazon is one of the largest corporations in the world and Disney+ has been advertising at every bus stop since it was launched in March 2020 for all new productions. The idea: With exclusive in-house productions, users should become subscribers and ideally stay tuned in after they have seen the Netflix series or the exclusive Sky blockbuster. For film and series lovers like me, this becomes an expensive affair in the long run if I want to watch every series, i.e. subscribe to every service. But how many are there anyway? In my research, I came up with 15 possible providers that I could subscribe to in Germany for a monthly surcharge. Not included are free services that are financed through advertising, for example, or those that offer films and series individually against payment. That would be:
Netflix
AmazonPrime
Disney+
JoynPLUS+
RTL+
sky ticket
AppleTV+
mubi
MagentaTV
myfilmclub
sooner
Crunchy roll
Animeondemand
Wakanim
Netzkino+
And here I come to my first hurdle of wanting to subscribe to “all” services. Some of the platforms do not offer any original, self-produced content, but only a (sometimes very) wide selection of films and series, some of which can be found there exclusively for a certain period of time.
What to do? I’m going to cross out the ones that don’t have “originals” (that is, content produced by the service itself) because I only want the services where I can’t get around it if I want to watch something specific. MeinFilmclub, Sooner and Netzkino+ are streaming providers for films, some of which have a very nice selection of highly decorated films – however, these could end up on other platforms at some point or I buy them digitally individually. Movie buffs should definitely keep an eye on it anyway, but I’m cutting them out and keeping the most well-known arthouse streamer Mubi as an alternative. Crunchyroll, Animeondemand and Wakanim remain. Never heard? These are streaming services for anime, which are not quite as well known as Netflix and Co. because of their niche. The selection is large for all of them, so I choose Crunchyroll because as far as I can see it is the only one with self-produced series, of which I’ve never heard of it though. But they still have other great animes. This leaves ten streaming services. How expensive will that be?
Netflix and Co. Which subscription model is suitable?
Ten streaming services remain. Without making it too complicated: I want to watch all the films and series offered in HD and not subscribe to annual subscriptions unless necessary. The service can be canceled on a monthly basis. That’s why I subscribe to the “Standard” subscription on Netflix and the “Entertainment & Cinema” package on Sky Ticket. With Sky you only get the series in combination with Netflix, not the films and only as an annual subscription – so I don’t have the combination offer. RTL+ is included if I subscribe to MagentaTV Smart Flex. This results in the following calculation:
Netflix: 12.99 euros
Amazon: 7.99 euros
Disney+: 8.99 euros
JoynPLUS+: 6.99 euros
Sky ticket: 14.98 euros
Apple TV+: 4.99 euros
TVNOW Premium: –
MagentaTV Smart Flex: 15 euros
Mubi: 8.99 euros
Crunchyroll: 6.99 euros
In total, that makes 87.91 euros per month. That surprises me. The best-known and most important streaming services in Germany for a total of less than 90 euros. On the one hand I would have expected more. On the other hand, the result is shocking because I love series, shows and movies and if I want access to all of them I have to pay more than 85 euros a month. As a subscriber, you wish that more series were available on more platforms – regardless of the business strategy.