ZDF & ProSieben Strike Streaming Pact As Traditional Rivals Team To Fight Streamers: “A Strong, Forward-Looking Signal”
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- ZDF and ProSiebenSat.1 struck a streaming pact integrating ZDF's on-demand catalogue into ProSieben's Joyn service from Q4 2025, giving Joyn users free, ad-free access to ZDF news, docs, culture, factual and entertainment programming.
- ZDF's own streaming portal remains "the central digital home" of its public broadcasting content even as its shows migrate to Joyn.
- The deal ends a 2024 dispute in which ProSieben added ZDF and ARD content to Joyn without agreement; courts ruled in favor of the public broadcasters under Germany's State Media Treaty, which encourages voluntary competition between pubcasters and commercial TV rivals.
- Florian Kumb, ZDF's Director Audience, said the partnership strengthens "the visibility of public broadcasting journalism in the digital space," while Nicole Agudo Berbel, ProSiebenSat.1's Chief Distribution & Partnerships Officer, framed it as proof public and private media can "find innovative responses to digital competition."
- Global streamers have struck parallel Euro deals, with TF1 launching its streaming and channel suite on Netflix, France Télévisions launching channels on Prime Video, and Disney+ signing content-sharing agreements with ITV, RTVE, M6 and ZDF over the past year.
Why it matters: ZDF and ARD lost a 2024 court ruling when ProSieben redistributed their content on Joyn anyway; the new voluntary pact converts that adversarial verdict into a structured commercial partnership, with ZDF now trading resistance for distribution on Germany's biggest ad-supported streamer. Joyn gains a free public-broadcaster inventory to compete with Netflix and Disney+, while ZDF extends reach without building a commercial platform of its own.
