After the internet platform Youtube launched its paid streaming service Primetime Channels in the USA in November 2022, the channel is now also to be launched in Germany. To this end, the company entered into partnerships with four private sports broadcasters, four other private special-interest channels, and also the public broadcaster ARD Plus.
Ingo Vandré, the managing director of ARD Plus GmbH, hopes, according to an official company statement, "a firm presence and expansion of reach in the YouTube community".
"A large selection of the most popular and successful TV films, series, shows, documentaries and children's programs of the ARD, which are no longer available in the ARD media library, would be fed in. Also included: the largest Tatort archive". As a result, public television earns money a second time with content that is already subject to a fee.
YouTube, a subsidiary of Google based in California, has about 49 million adult users per month in Germany, according to the market research institute GfK (Growth from Knoweldge).