As part of an economic mission from the Amsterdam-Utrecht region to Bavaria in Germany, MediaMatters and innovative SME's visited media players in Munich from 11-13 February. Organisations like Süddeutsche Zeitung, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Akom360, United Digital Group, Media Lab Bayern and Roland Berger opened their doors to us and presented their views on digital media transformation. It was a great opportunity for the participants to meet with these companies, present their company and the role they could play in the digital transformation of media companies.

The following SME's media startups and scale-ups participated in the Digital Media track: MatchHamster, StreamOne, InBeacon, VideoDock, Graphlr, Eumedianet, Oneshoe and Obi4Wan. Several of these companies - MatchHamster, StreamOne and VideoDock - have participated in the 2016 MediaMatters program and are now looking for ways to expand to the German market. Other companies, like OneShoe and Obi4Wan, are already establishing offices in Germany and are looking for clients and partners.

The media companies we visited, were centred around three main themes: publishing, broadcasting and online marketing/advertising. Especially the marketing/advertising companies (Akom360 and UDG) seem to have come at grip with digital media, while the (public) broadcasters and newspapers are still navigating their way through the digital landscape. 

Bayerischer Rundfunk is rolling out a grand scheme called 'Hoch 3' to become a cross media organisation, by centering their organisation around content like news and sports in stead of around channels. Furthermore, is is centralising its innovation efforts around a few subjects like the BR-MediaThek, their OTT-platform, leaving less room for the existing channels to experiment with new models. The Süddeutsche Zeitung is taking a platform oriented approach: paper, paid digital and free content, with each platform having its own business model and its own challenges.

The next trip to Germany is in March. Then we are visiting the MediaMatch-event of NextMedia accelerator in Hamburg. InBeacon and MediaMatters alumnus MatchHamster are taking the stage to present themselves for media companies and investors. are still available if you want to visit this event.