Henrik Pabst on ProSiebenSat.1’s Digital Evolution

Henrik Pabst, the head of content at ProSiebenSat.1 Media, told CTV Festival viewers about how the German media group is evolving its strategies for reaching audiences and advertisers in a keynote Q&A with World Screen’s Mansha Daswani today.

Pabst, who also serves as CEO of Seven.One Studios, weighed in on acquiring for linear and digital and evolving Joyn into a “super-streamer” in a session you can watch on-demand here.

“We are transforming from a multi-broadcaster to a super streamer,” Pabst said. “This journey requires central steering.” By that, Pabst is referring to a structure at the company that centralized all content decisions, regardless of platform. “If your goal is maximum reach that you can monetize with your sales department, you need to oversee all platforms and not concentrate on a single one. You need to be platform agnostic. This is how you can ensure to reach all your demos. This central steering is also a unified structure that allows you strategic objectives and guardrails. You can tell exactly how much content volume you need of a certain type. You can be very clear on your release plans across all platforms, when you play what and in which order. This structure also supports you on your journey from a linear broadcast organization with more streamer-friendly content going forward.”

Pabst then drilled down into how content strategies are shifting across linear and digital. “Linear television is getting older, our channels are getting older, the demos are getting older. We have quiz, news, infos, magazines, morning shows and sports. But the major block that we are looking at is the so-called hybrid formats, which work well on linear and show growth numbers in streaming. It’s reality, daily fiction, entertainment shows—but these entertainment shows need to have a certain horizontal edge to them—food, adventure, factual entertainment and dating. This is the hybrid world that you ideally grow. And then you have some streamer content targeting audiences that you may not hit with the other content. This can be younger comedy or edgier reality. Having said that, if linear content is performing fantastically and it’s not delivering any growth numbers in streaming, it’s OK. But if you have a program that works mediocre on linear and does not support your streaming, you should consider skipping it. That is a bit of a balancing act. On the one hand, you need to keep your linear business attractive and ideally grow market shares. On the other hand, you need use it to grow your streamer, your BVOD service.”

Asked about the impact of America’s new tariffs, Pabst noted their destabilizing impact on the advertisement market, “and if the advertisement market is not working well, it will have an impact on our content; less advertisements, less content. What I’ve seen in the content business that’s parked the trade war a bit on the side is that…the shelves in the supermarket of great ideas that I could acquire are empty at the moment. This is why we need to focus even more in our local market to have top talent, top execution and the top activation. You need to activate the content because the only things that matter in a world of too much content are hits.”

The conversation then moved to Joyn, which Pabst described as the biggest AVOD offering in German-speaking Europe. “Joyn works as an aggregator. Joyn is aggregating the contents of ProSiebenSat.1’s channel groups and has its own originals. And it has partners on board. The combination of these three curates the best content for all key demos that we want to achieve. ProSiebenSat.1 has a long history in the German market, so we are already in the habits and in the daily routines of our viewers. We are up over 70 percent year on year when it comes to the user base. Over 40 percent when it comes to usage. The road to the super-streamer is a good road!”

The company has also been making more long-form content available on YouTube, using the platform as more than just a place for marketing efforts.

“We need to diversify our user base. We all need new users. The big fear of cannibalization does not seem to come true. This is why we will continue to work with YouTube, but, of course, Joyn is our primary destination.”

ProSiebenSat.1 also has a long history of working with online content creators. “This year, we have over 25 creator formats on Joyn. We are previewing creator formats that are normally on YouTube on Joyn. Hence, we get their audiences on Joyn. It actually helps us broaden our user base.”

Pabst then weighed in on the analytics issue and how the company is bringing together traditional linear ratings metrics and internal data from Joyn to steer investments.

“We are focusing on the relationship between content investment and received performance. Received performance is a combination of linear market shares, streaming user acquisition and usage data. These three KPIs set the basis for something we call cost-per-view. We look at a cost-per-view for our investments. This is helping us to see if our content works across all platforms. This also helps us to see if we are following the journey and our transformation to more streamer-friendly content. If you just look at a market share, it doesn’t help you. If you only look at digital usage, it does not help you. If you have the combination of both, then we come to terms with our transformation.”

On the shift of ad dollars to digital, Pabst noted, “AVOD generates more revenue per hour than linear TV. The challenge for every broadcaster is that the digital share of total video viewing time needs to grow. This is the percentage number we look at on a daily basis. The economic environment is difficult, but we are confident because we are a reliable local partner. We are brand-safe, and we are a trusted partner in the German-speaking region.”

Brands are also responding to the opportunity to be an integral part of storytelling. “Brands in content will grow going forward. Whenever we start an in-house production that we control via Seven.One Studios, we have a direct link into our ad-sales department. So, is there any advertiser who wants to place his product in the show? What could work for this daily? Can we do this, regulatory-wise? Going forward, this world will definitely grow. So, brands and content will merge more with each other and will become a financing part of any content commission.”