Call for Proposals: TV & Online Content Funding Programme

Objectives

• The general objectives of the Programme are:
  • to safeguard, develop and promote European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage;
  • to increase the competitiveness and the economic potential of the cultural and creative sectors, in particular the audiovisual sector.
• These goals are pursued through the following specific objectives:
  • enhancing artistic and cultural cooperation at the European level, in order to support the creation of European works and strengthen the economic, social and external dimensions and innovation and mobility in Europe’s cultural and creative sectors (CULTURE strand);
  • promoting the competitiveness, scalability, cooperation, innovation and sustainability, including through mobility in the European audiovisual sector (MEDIA strand);
  • promoting policy cooperation and innovative actions supporting all strands of the Programme, promoting a diverse, independent and pluralistic media environment, and media literacy, thereby fostering freedom of artistic expression, intercultural dialogue and social inclusion (CROSS SECTORAL strand).
• The general and specific objectives of the Programme take into account the dual nature of the cultural and creative sectors, recognising, on the one hand, the intrinsic and artistic value of culture and, on the other, the economic value of those sectors, including their broader contribution to growth and competitiveness, creativity and innovation.
• The objectives are pursued in a way that encourages inclusion, equality, diversity and participation, including, where appropriate, specific incentives that encourage the active participation in the cultural and creative sectors of people with disabilities, people belonging to minorities and people belonging to socially marginalised groups, including both the creative process and audience development; and gender equality, in particular as a driver of economic growth, innovation and creativity.

Themes and Priorities

• The MEDIA Strand shall provide support for the following measures:
  • Production of innovative and quality TV content and serial storytelling, addressing diverse audiences, by European independent production companies.
  • The objective of the support to TV and online content is to increase the capacity of audiovisual producers to develop and produce strong projects with significant potential to circulate throughout Europe and beyond, and to facilitate European and international co-productions within the television and online sector.
  • The action aims to strengthen the independence of producers in relation to broadcasters and digital platforms, to enhance collaboration between operators, including independent producers, broadcasters, digital platforms and sales agents, from different countries participating in the MEDIA Strand, including from low capacity countries, in order to produce high quality programming aimed at wide international distribution and promoted to a wide audience including commercial exploitation in the multi-platform environment.
  • Particular attention will be given to projects presenting innovative aspects in the content and in the financing that show a clear link with the envisaged distribution strategies.

Funding Information

• Project budget (maximum grant amount):
  • For creative documentaries, the maximum grant amount is EUR 300 000 per project.
  • For animation works, the maximum grant amount is EUR 500 000 per project.

Eligible Activities

• Activities that can be funded
  • The TV and online content action supports works (drama films, animation and documentary) intended for linear and non-linear broadcasting, presenting:
    • strong cooperation between operators from different countries participating in the MEDIA Strand, including between broadcasters;
    • high creative/artistic value and wide cross-border exploitation potential able to reach audiences at European and international level;
    • innovative aspects in terms of the content and the financing that show a clear link with the envisaged distribution strategies.

Expected Impact

• Increased production of high quality European works for linear and non-linear broadcasting including on digital platforms, as well as an increase in the number of co-productions.
• Enhanced cooperation between operators from different countries participating in the MEDIA Strand, including between broadcasters and from low capacity countries.
• Increased audience for European works through linear and non-linear broadcasting including on digital platforms.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies);
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • Creative Europe Participating Countries:
      • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs).
      • non-EU countries:
        • EEA countries and countries associated to the Creative Europe Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature.
• be established in one of the countries participating fully in the MEDIA Strand of the Creative Europe Programme and owned directly or indirectly, wholly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries. When a company is publicly listed, the location of the stock exchange will in principle determine its nationality.
• Natural persons — Natural persons are not eligible (with the exception of selfemployed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person.
• International organisations — International organisations are eligible. The rules on eligible countries do not apply to them.

Ineligible

• The following projects are ineligible:
  • live recordings, TV games, talk shows, cooking shows, magazines, tv-shows, reality shows, educational, teaching and “how to” programmes;
  • documentaries promoting tourism, “making-of”, reports, animal reportages, news programmes and “docu-soaps”;
  • projects including pornographic or racist material or advocating violence;
  • works of a promotional nature;
  • institutional productions to promote a specific organisation or its activities;
  • music videos and video-clips;
  • projects already financed by Eurimages;
  • productions originally intended as cinema works (e.g. several theatrical distributors and/or an international sales agent involved).

For more information, visit Creative Europe.