Major streamers and tech companies like Netflix, Disney, Google and Amazon have been extending U.S.-based reach into markets globally, sometimes striking partnerships such as Netflix’s deal with TF1 in France, as one example. But it doesn’t mean Europe is ready to hand off storytelling or tech to global players completely and some in the space see a need for more collaboration among local participants to compete.
Like in the U.S. streaming has taken hold in Europe, although there are distinctions, including the unique prevalence of broadcaster video on-demand or BVOD in the latter.
SVOD subscriptions in Europe have grown from 167 million in 2020 to currently reaching over 300 million in 2025 and are expected to decelerate but keep expanding to over 400 million by 2030, according to data shared by 3Vision’s Rafi Cohen during the IBC 2025 show in Amsterdam this month.
Per the firm’s Video Markets Tracker, in 2025 Europe accounts for 18%, or $36 billion, of $172 billion in global premium video streaming revenue – which while significant is still dwarfed by that generated in North America.
Still, 2025 marks the first year that premium video streaming revenue significantly overtook that of pay TV in Europe - by $5 billion, per Cohen - with the firm projecting streaming revenue in Europe to outpace pay TV on the continent by $22 billion in 2030. By that time, 3Vision expects SVOD revenue to reach $50.6 billion in Europe.
But as they seek profitability and scale, streamers and tech vendors in Europe not only have each other to compete with but giants like Netflix, which alone generated nearly $40 billion in annual revenue in 2024.
Scale versus sovereignty for European streamers and companies was a topic that an IBC panel featuring CEOs from Bedrock Streaming, MainStreaming and Okcast.tv zeroed in on for perspectives.
For Jonas Engwall, CEO of Bedrock Streaming (a joint venture between French broadcaster M6 and RTL Group which operates in multiple European countries helping to build and operate streaming platforms, primarily for broadcast and media clients in Europe, with about 50 million users of its platform ) the situation boils down to a key factor: European streaming competition is no longer coming from within the continent’s own borders but rather from massive players that have global reach and want to extend further.
In the streaming world, “your competition is not local,” Engwall commented. “All our clients are used to being the biggest player in the local market. Nowadays, their competition is actually global.”
“As a result, the end user expectations are really set by global players” like Netflix and Spotify, he continued, adding that that as European companies, Bedrock also fundamentally believes “that to be able to play in this league with global giants, you need scale.”
In his view, reaching scale in any individual European country is “simply not enough,” which is why the company’s work involves operating across countries in Europe to reach a sufficient scale that’s needed to operate a streaming business in a financially viable way. And where he emphasized the platform must be - at minimum - equally as good as what global players deliver to meet those evolving consumer expectations.
Engwall noted that end users will see different things in different countries as its platform adapts to market-and client-specific needs, but behind the scenes, “it’s the same motor running.”
He acknowledged that even in the U.S. consolidation is happening and streamers are all seeking to optimize scale, so are in a similar if not the same boat to some degree. But emphasized this is particularly true in Europe and a need for players on the continent to come together – both to compete and to retain culture.
“We need to be smart about how we think about partnering versus not being focused too much on competitors,” Engwall said. “We’re actually better off working together and reaching that scale and together being able to compete against the global giants,” which he views as the real threat.
And while storytelling is universal and global players are certainly investing in local content in addition to exporting U.S. productions, the panel signaled that European markets still want to hold on to what makes them unique.
Engwall said he watches a lot of U.S. content himself, but “wouldn’t want my kids to only have U.S. content.”
“And guess what, if we’re not doing our jobs correct together with our clients, that’s what’s going to happen, where kids are going to have only Disney and whatnot, so I think it’s good to work together in that sense” he added.
Asked about scale versus sovereignty during the panel session, MainStreaming CEO Tassilo Raesig said that partnerships with telcos can help European companies achieve the scale that’s needed more efficiently, where sharing infrastructure can also help lower costs.
MainStreaming is a European-based edge video delivery company that creates private CDNs for large streaming services around the world and operates a global network itself to manage peak streaming traffic for live events. It builds infrastructure as a service for major OTT services, particularly those that have large demand for peak times during live events, such as sports broadcasters like DAZN and major European ISP partners like Deutsche Telekom and BT.
In terms of collaboration, one of MainStreaming’s efforts is dubbed the “Better Together Ecosystem,” where the company works together with streaming services and ISPs in the region to create an end-to-end set-up and give them control over their CDN network, promising quality and security solutions alongside cost efficiency and market-specific protections.
“As we say, we are delivering from Europe for Europe, meaning really focusing on all of the requirements….customer privacy, sovereignty, [protecting against] influence from the outside, and really having our customers own their own network whatever it takes,” Raesig commented.
On the question about addressing sovereignty versus scale, Raesig noted that partnerships with ISPs in different territories across Europe helps deliver a local experience, “but using the same technology stack creates scale that you need in order to be cost efficient.”
Similar to how Bedrock Streaming uses a single back end but tailors for different European countries, services and end users.
One couldn’t build small islands of solutions country-by-country in Europe and expect to have the same cost-to-quality ratio as big global players, Raseig said, adding the view that Main Streaming and others have already demonstrated they can build services that compete with North American-based players on both quality and cost.
For Bedrock, Engwall said the company’s fundamental belief in partnering and collaboration hasn’t changed but that others too are now realizing scale is needed and money is no longer as free flowing as it once was, suggesting European streamers and vendors are becoming more open to hearing the message he’s sharing.
Raesig, meanwhile, previously served as CEO of German streaming platform Joyn and believes times have changed where there is now a refocusing to see where European players can share and win against global services. It’s a trend he asserts is happening everywhere, from the content delivery to platform to content production side of businesses.
“All the broadcasters, they only can survive if they deliver premium, local content at an efficient cost basis” and partner in a useful matter, he said, noting that “is now the changed approach.”
Cédric Monnier, CEO of France-based FAST vendor OKAST.TV said he’s still competing with plenty of others today but engaging in “more partnering with a lot of my previous competitors,” as both stand to benefit. “We can have [a] better value proposition today as partners” rather than going it alone, he said.
Okast participates and helped spearhead two European Union-funded consortiums FAST4EU and ASAP4EU, which are focused on accelerating the development of FAST in Europe and providing tech and content approaches tailored to the European market that have the ability to scale internationally.
He also noted global power dynamics at play as European companies look to work together.
“At the end of the day, all this tech that we control and we develop, is just a soft power way to put our culture really worldwide, to protect it, to thrive in it,” Monnier commented.
Although the CEOs believe global players are the main threat, they don’t necessarily see a streamer from the continent exporting and going head-to-head to become the next Netflix.
Engwall cited an appetite in other markets for European services and content, like British-focused specialty SVOD BritBox, but acknowledged it would be quite tough to have a European-based streamer with one brand like Netflix that goes global. In Raesig’s view, the only content that could potentially be a strong global export from Europe is sports, where he could see certain sports league services like soccer launching and taking off worldwide.
However, the panelists did share a sentiment that there’s potential to export European-grown streaming technologies worldwide.
And while the U.S. has its own many challenges with fragmentation, Europe does as well with different countries, languages and cultures – although the CEOs cited opportunity for those that can help defragment or build so-called bridges across the continent.
As Monnier noted, Europe and its numerous countries provides “more opportunities to succeed in multiple places,” albeit on potentially smaller scales at times.
Want to learn more about the streaming landscape in Europe and connect with key stakeholders? Join us at StreamTV Europe in Lisbon, Portugal, April 13-15, 2026.