List of the 80 largest media companies Germany [2024 Update]

List of the 5 largest media companies in Germany

Media are often referred to as the fourth estate in the state. In any case, they represent a large market with annual sales of around 60 billion euros. These are the 5 largest German media companies:

1. Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, Gütersloh

Bertelsmann is Germany’s largest media company and also a leading global player in the media business. The company’s history began in 1835 as a book publisher. The Bertelsmann Group includes various subgroups – including RTL Group, Penguin Random House, Gruner + Jahr, Arvato. The Bertelsmann Group employs over 130,000 people.

Update 2024: The content partnership between RTL Deutschland and Sky Deutschland announced at the end of 2023 will start in 2024. As part of the partnership, RTL viewers will primarily be offered a number of live sports broadcasts for which Sky Deutschland holds the license.

2. ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE, Unterföhring

ProSieben and Sat.1 belonged to the Kirch media empire until 2001. The merger of the two TV stations was already completed during the Kirch era. ProSiebenSat.1 has 7,250 employees and operates in four business segments: Entertainment Business (Seven.One Entertainment), Program Production and Distribution Business, Online Retail and Online Dating.

Update 2023: In February 2023, a new rights deal was announced between Seven.One Entertainment Group and NBCUniversal Group Distribution. The subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE will be NBCUniversal’s main media partner in Germany and secures the rights to numerous films and series.

3. Axel Springer SE, Berlin

Axel Springer started in 1946 in Hamburg as a newspaper publisher, today it is a multi-channel media group with over 16,000 employees. Its best-known “products” include the newspapers BILD and WELT and the news channel WELT. Digital activities now account for three-quarters of revenues.

4. Hubert Burda Media Holding Kommanditgesellschaft, Offenburg

Originally a printing company, Burda now includes various illustrated, magazines, websites, TV and radio stations. Other business areas: Mail order and marketing services. Well-known Burda products include the magazines and journals Bunte, FreizeitRevue, SuperIllu and Focus, and the digital platform Xing.

5. Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, Hamburg

Bauer’s history began in 1875 as a printing company; after World War II, the company shifted to magazine publishing. Today, the Bauer Media Group employs 15,000 people and produces several dozen magazines and journals for a broad audience – including Bravo, Cosmopolitan and TV Movie.

Media sector: An important industry for Germany

Our database of the largest media companies includes some well-known names and also some umbrella companies that are behind several media companies at the same time. For example, there is Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, for example, which is behind the TV channel RTL or Gruner + Jahr, one of the largest newspaper and magazine publishers. Bertelsmann is headquartered in Gütersloh in North Rhine-Westphalia and generated more than 18 billion euros in revenue in 2019.

This information will be included

• Company name
• General contact data (address, e-mail address, telephone number, URL)
• Name of the management
• Serial letter suitable for addressing the management (e.g. “Dear Dr. Müller”)
• Sales figures for the years 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (taken from the annual and consolidated financial statements)
• Employee figures for the years 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018 (taken from the annual and consolidated financial statements)
• Sector classification & Field of activity

Note: If the sales and employee figures are not included in a company’s own financial statements but in the parent company’s consolidated financial statements, the data from the respective consolidated financial statements are provided.

Picture source: Unsplash (Sam McGhee), Unsplash (AbsolutVision)