Zattoo Taps Ströer for Exclusive German CTV Ad Inventory Sales

This partnership centralizes fragmented CTV supply through one of Germany’s largest media houses, lowering the barrier for traditional advertisers to shift budgets into addressable streaming. By leveraging Ströer’s established agency relationships and 13,700-person workforce, Zattoo can scale its ad business more aggressively than through direct sales alone. At an ecosystem level, this move reflects the rapid professionalization of the German CTV market, which is seeing a massive budget reallocation as linear TV ad revenue declines. Watch for whether Ströer integrates Zattoo’s inventory into programmatic demand-side platforms to attract performance-focused buyers.

The German advertising landscape is undergoing a significant structural pivot toward digital video. Per RTL Group in August 2025, the broadcaster's digital advertising revenue surged 27.1% in the first half of the year, while its traditional TV advertising revenue fell by 6.9%. This shift is further evidenced by international giants moving aggressively into the territory; Amazon reported in June 2025 that its ad-supported Prime Video tier reached 17 million monthly users in Germany, supported by its first local advertising upfront event in Cologne. This influx of premium ad-supported inventory is forcing local platforms like Zattoo to harden their sales infrastructure to remain competitive.

Measurement and identity standardisation are also maturing to support these sales efforts. Per Utiq and Visoon in July 2025, the launch of consent-based, telco-powered identifiers has begun providing more accurate cross-platform tracking in HbbTV and CTV environments. Furthermore, Nielsen’s expansion of its Ad Intel platform in August 2025 introduced dedicated CTV tracking for major players including Netflix, Disney+, and Joyn, giving German advertisers the competitive spending visibility required for large-scale media planning. With FAST channel adoption across Europe reaching 27% as of March 2026, the Zattoo-Ströer alliance positions both companies to capture a larger share of the migrating audience, particularly as 59% of European households express a desire to reduce streaming subscription costs via ad-supported models.