Cullen International has just published a new version of its benchmark on the prominence of services of general interest in fourteen  countries.  

Regulatory context

The benchmark shows new developments in the following countries:
 

• In Belgium (Flanders), rules on prominence are expected to enter into application on 1 July 2026. According to the draft decree, a range of services would benefit from prominence, including public service media and  audiovisual media services having a "significant impact” (including regional ones) as designated by the regulator. Prominence would need to be provided on  user interfaces (as defined in the European Media Freedom Act). Traditional distributors, such as Telenet and Proximus would be excluded as well as micro-enterprises. 
• Germany where a new tender proceeding to award a “public value status” to audiovisual and audio services was completed in June 2025. A public value status was awarded to 73 nationwide linear and on-demand services and to 247 local and regional services. The lists will be published in autumn 2025.
• In the UK, the Media Act 2024 which foresees rules on prominence is in the process of being implemented. Ofcom proposed in a consultation document of July 2025 that platforms with at least 700,000 active users should provide prominence. This would cover platforms such as those of Apple, Samsung and Virgin Media. Separately, Ofcom also published a report in June 2025 which calls for prominence of public service media to be ensured on YouTube.

Market context

The figure below - from Looper Insights - lists, for Germany and the UK the services that attracted the greatest number of users over different types of devices (such as smart TVs, games consoles and streaming devices – see * and** below) during the first quarter of 2025. 

*10 devices in Germany: Apple TV, Deutsche Telekom, Fire TV, Google TV, Hisense Vidaa TV, LG TV, PS4, Roku, Samsung, Sky Q

** 14 devices in the UK: Apple TV, Fire TV, Google TV, Hisense Vidaa TV, LG TV, PS4, PS5, Roku, Samsung TV, Sony TV, Sky Q, Sky Stream, Virgin TV 360, Xbox One Console 
 

For more information on the benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our European Media service.