List of the 80 Largest Media Companies Germany [2023 Update]

Product Overview

Contains the 80 largest media companies from Germany from numerous sectors such as film production, radio, book publishing, magazines, etc. The list is an excerpt from our list of the 5,000 largest companies in Germany.

Excellent level of detail: industry and field of activity, turnover (2015 - 2021) if publicly available, number of employees (2018 - 2021) if publicly available, general contact details, names of management, etc.

Suitable for bulk mailings: list contains columns for German formal salutation, title, first and last name of the management.

High-quality lists thanks to manual data maintenance by an experienced research team in Munich. Boutique research instead of unchecked crawler data.

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.

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.