Media, Marketing & Communications

Berlin – September 11, 2026 -- German digital media outlet NIUS drew more than 1.3 million viewers for its special broadcast covering the Saxony-Anhalt state election, marking one of the largest audiences recorded for live digital political coverage in Germany.

YouTube live audience peaks at 135,000 concurrent viewers

At the broadcast's peak, over 135,000 viewers watched simultaneously on YouTube alone. NIUS' YouTube channel logged more than 5.2 million total viewers in July, according to the company.

NIUS Live becomes Germany's largest daily livestream

Over the past seven days, NIUS Live averaged 32,357 concurrent viewers per episode, positioning it as the largest livestream in Germany by the company's account. The program airs daily starting at 6 a.m.

Amsterdam – – September 11, 2026 -- NetActuate has moved its 2026 C-Band Transition Acceleration Program onto the NetActuate Media Substrate, a transport layer the company is introducing at IBC 2026, giving U.S. broadcasters a terrestrial path off C-band satellite ahead of a federally mandated spectrum auction.

Broadcasters get a redundant path without buying a second circuit

The program, first announced at NAB, now runs on infrastructure NetActuate already operates. A station group sends one stream and receives one stream while the company runs diverse paths beneath it. In a blackout test cited by the company, one path was taken fully dark and the merged output lost no data.

Amsterdam – September 11, 2026 -- NetActuate today launched the Media Substrate, a managed transport layer that runs redundant paths for contribution-grade live video across more than 45 global locations, available immediately in the company's Customer Portal ahead of IBC 2026.

Broadcasters send one stream while NetActuate manages dual paths beneath it

The service lets broadcasters send a single stream and receive a single stream, while NetActuate runs diverse paths across its network, merges them at egress, and measures latency and continuity on every hop. In a blackout test cited by the company, one path was taken fully dark and the merged output lost no data.

Alflen – September 11, 2026 -- Emilio Donaubauer, 27, generated between €2,000 and €3,000 a month from a self-taught design and content business while still a teenage apprentice, income that outpaced his training salary and became the foundation for two companies he now controls: EmilioMindless GmbH and holding entity Mindless Empire GmbH.

Donaubauer built a paying client base from unpaid gaming-industry design work starting at age 13

Donaubauer taught himself Photoshop to produce thumbnails, banners and video edits after connecting with major German gaming influencers. He worked unpaid for several years before referrals converted the skill into paid contracts, shifting focus around age 16-17 from individual creator clients to B2B customers seeking longer-term branding relationships.

Koblenz – September 11, 2026 -- Mid-sized companies lose time and marketing impact when they hire multiple specialized vendors instead of a single accountable partner, according to Sarah Walenta, founder and managing director of communita GmbH.

Walenta argues that fragmented marketing setups -- separate providers for websites, social media, SEO and campaigns -- push coordination work back onto internal staff or management, undermining the outsourcing benefit companies originally sought.

Denver – September 11, 2026 -- Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has signed a multi-year agreement with A+E Global Media to centralize video-on-demand distribution for the A&E, HISTORY, and Lifetime brands using its Comcast MediaExpress platform.

Comcast MediaExpress consolidates content ingest across seven major distribution partners

The deal establishes a single point of ingest for A+E Global Media's premium video titles and metadata, feeding distribution to Amazon, Apple Channels, Xfinity, Cox, Mediacom, DIRECTV and DISH. The 24/7 managed service, part of the broader Comcast Media360 portfolio, is built to cut operational complexity in content preparation, packaging and delivery.

Mainz – September 10, 2026 -- German public broadcaster ZDF launches its 2026/2027 UEFA Champions League coverage with two consecutive highlight broadcasts, airing the men's competition for the third season under the 36-team league-phase format.

ZDF schedules back-to-back highlight shows for matchday one

"ZDFsportstudio UEFA Champions League" airs Wednesday, September 9, 2026, at 23:00 CET, covering opening matches involving VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund. A second edition follows Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 23:15 CET, featuring FC Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig. Host Katrin Müller-Hohenstein anchors both editions from the Mainz studio, joined by former professional player and U19 national coach Hanno Balitsch as analyst.

Cologne – September 10, 2026 -- Cologne-based communications agency Counterpart Group is warning clients and the marketing industry that polished AI-generated output is increasingly mistaken for substantive strategy, coining the term "marketing holograms" for concepts that look finished but collapse under scrutiny.

Counterpart Group says AI-generated concepts often look complete without being properly validated

Managing Director Judith Dobner said generative AI can now turn an initial idea into a presentation-ready concept within minutes, but professional form does not equal substance. She warned that unverified assumptions can be dressed up to look like fact, and unchecked logic can appear sound simply because AI phrases it convincingly.

Shenzhen – September 10, 2026 -- China has moved to institutionalize regional media cooperation ahead of hosting the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting later this year, with a Shenzhen-based forum producing four concrete outcomes including a new coordinating body and a technology-sharing center for Asia-Pacific outlets.

The Asia-Pacific Media Forum established the Asia-Pacific Media Partnership Organizing Committee, exchanged China-foreign media cooperation documents, launched the "Gather in Shenzhen, Create a Better Asia-Pacific" Media Cooperation Initiative, and released the Shenzhen Consensus. Organizers framed the shift as a move from "scattered interaction" to "institutionalized collaboration" among regional media players.

Mainz – September 10, 2026 -- German public broadcaster ZDF has shortlisted five debut novels for its 48th annual "aspekte" Literature Prize, a €10,000 award recognized as a launchpad for major literary careers since 1979.

Five debut novels advance to the final round

The finalists are Valeria Gordeev's "Die Zikade entschlüpft ihrer goldglänzenden Hülle" (S. Fischer), Clara Leinemann's "Gelbe Monster" (Suhrkamp), Martin Piekar's "Vom Fällen eines Stammbaums" (Rowohlt), Lilli Tollkien's "Mit beiden Händen den Himmel stützen" (Aufbau), and David Vajda's "Diamanten" (Hanser). Each title represents a different major German-language publishing house, underscoring the prize's reach across the industry's leading imprints.