GMICP researchers Lukas Barbutev (Leibniz Institute for Media Research), Hendrik Theine (Johannes Kepler University Linz) and Tobias Mast (Leibniz Institute for Media Research) have published a new article in German-language media research journal Media Perspektiven (28/2026).

Drawing on the 2025 GMICP report on Germany that they co-authored, they show that Germany’s media and internet economy grew 24.8% between 2019 and 2023, but most of that growth went to segments dominated by US platform companies. After inflation, real growth was just 6.4%.

Key findings:

• Alphabet, Meta and Amazon controlled more than 80% of Germany’s internet advertising market in 2023.
• US providers took about 65% of online video revenue in 2023, while German providers RTL+ and Joyn held 8%.
• Publishing shrank by more than 17% in real terms. Districts and cities without an economically independent local newspaper rose from 17 to 36 between 2019 and 2024.

The authors argue that current EU and German rules leave this outflow largely unaddressed. They weigh options such as investment obligations for streaming services and a digital levy on very large platforms and search engines.

Read the article (in German) | GMICP report: Media, Telecommunication, and Internet Concentration in Germany, 2019–2023