ProSiebenSat.1 Takes Full Control of Joyn

ProSiebenSat.1 Media is taking 100 percent control of the video platform Joyn, buying out Warner Bros. Discovery’s stake in the venture.

Launched in 2019, Joyn features ad-supported and subscription tiers. It has 4 million unique users per month. With the transaction, Joyn will now sit as a wholly owned subsidiary within ProSiebenSat.1’s entertainment segment. The platform will continue to deliver on-demand access to free, advertising-financed content from Warner Bros. Discovery, while Joyn PLUS+ subs can access discovery+.

Rainer Beaujean, group CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, stated: “By acquiring all shares in Joyn, we are continuing the digital transformation of ProSiebenSat.1 Group. With Joyn having launched as a pure streaming platform three years ago, we are now making it the first point of contact in our digital ecosystem and thereby benefiting from synergies within the group. In line with our strategy, we are extending our reach, especially among young target groups, and creating new opportunities for monetization. Full control over Joyn gives us the entrepreneurial flexibility we need.”

Wolfgang Link, member of the executive board of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, with responsibility for the entertainment segment, added, “Together with Warner Bros. Discovery, we have developed Joyn into a successful and relevant player in the German streaming market, and are delighted that their content will remain available on Joyn. With the complete takeover, we are making Joyn the most important cornerstone of our digital content offering from now on— and we have big growth plans: We are further expanding our offering with local, relevant live content, thus successively increasing our marketable total reach and opening up additional monetization opportunities, because we want to make Joyn the largest freely accessible streaming platform for premium video content in the German-speaking region.”

Link added, “We have many new program highlights in the pipeline. In addition to more and more previews from our group of stations, Joyn will expand its range of live events and Joyn Originals with the stars of the very young target group and attention-grabbing reality formats such as Love is King and the improv series INTIMATE. In doing so, Joyn will remain an aggregator platform in the live streaming segment, and we look forward to new content partnerships.”

More than 35,000 scripted series and reality, magazine, infotainment and sports content from ProSiebenSat.1 are already available for free on Joyn, which is planning a slate of FAST channels to launch before the end of the year. ProSiebenSat.1 is also expanding its offering of marketable short-form content and major live and sport events on the streaming platform.