Magine establishes Germany as its largest market

Cloud-based over-the-top TV service, Magine now has more customers in Germany than in its home market of Sweden, less than a month after its full launch in the country. 

Speaking to DTVE, Magine founder and CEO Mattias Hjelmstedt said that the speed of its growth in the German market had taken him by surprise, but that the country has consistently been it’s number one priority.

“Germany has for a long time been our core focus as a market, for several reasons. One, it’s the biggest TV market in Europe. Secondly it is a country with good general penetration of broadband, which is good for a service like ours,” said Hjelmstedt.

He added that Magine, which first beta-launched in Germany approximately nine months before its full April 2014 launch in the country, had spent a long time getting “good traction” with the German content industry and that its presence there would be a template for future European expansion.

“The concept is basically succeed in Germany with all [the] things needed for Germany and then use that as a base to continue. Because getting our system and all that we have ready for Germany means that we are ready for most markets,” said Hjelmstedt.

Magine first launched in Sweden last year and is currently also in beta in Spain. In Germany it carries a large range of channels including SAT.1, ProSieben, Kabel Eins, Sixx, Sat.1 Gold, ProSieben Maxx, RTL, RTL II, Bloomberg TV, Al Jazeera, Sport 1 and Eurosport 1.

Hjelmstedt would not reveal how many users Magine has in total or the precise breakdown by country. However, in terms of future expansion, he said that the UK “is a very interesting market for us,” and that on the product front Magine plans to add more features during the year.