{"id":746290,"date":"2026-02-06T13:13:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/746290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T13:13:10","slug":"streamers-networks-slam-proposed-german-quotas-investment-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/746290\/","title":{"rendered":"Streamers, Networks Slam Proposed German quotas, investment demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGerman commercial broadcasters and international<\/a> streamers are, unsurprisingly, attacking new government plans, unveiled this week, to force them to invest more in local productions.<\/p>\n

\n\tAhead of the Berlin film festival<\/a>, which kicks off Feb. 12, Germany<\/a>\u2018s Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer unveiled the broad outlines of a plan that would require global streamers and domestic TV stations to invest at least 8 percent of their annual net turnover in European film and TV production. If they invest more than 12 percent, the investment can include the production of non-English language films and series made in Germany. Streamers will be required to give up certain rights to producers, eliminating the standard work-for-hire model.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlongside those sticks, Weimer offered a carrot, proposing to nearly double federal government funding for German film production to \u20ac250 million ($295 million) annually.<\/p>\n

\n\tTogether, it\u2019s hope the proposals will help boost a struggling local industry. German is Europe\u2019s biggest television market and, behind France and the U.K., the continent\u2019s third-largest film market, but has been hit hard by the combination of rising production costs and declining local investment from streamers, who have broadly shifted from big-budget prestige projects like Netflix\u2019s Dark or Amazon Prime\u2019s The Gryphon, to cheaper reality TV formats and smaller scale dramas.<\/p>\n

\n\tVAUNET, the lobby group for German-based streamers and commercial channels, called the government proposals \u201ca bitter disappointment for the media industry,\u201d which \u201cabandons the possibility of a quick and unbureaucratic solution.\u201d The streamers have long opposed quotas and the idea of sharing rights with independent producers, dismissing the ideas as \u201coutdated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the German proposals are tame compared to rules in neighboring France, where global streaming platforms are required to invest at least 20 to 25 percent of their annual local turnover in French and European content.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe German production industry, which had hoped for a more robust investment requirement from the streamers, greeted the government announcement with cautious optimism.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe German film industry has been waiting a long time for this signal,\u201d said Michelle M\u00fcntefering, CEO and representative for the executive board at German production body Produktionallianz, in a statement. \u201cGood stories need not only creativity but also reliable framework conditions so that ideas can become tangible productions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGermany\u2019s historic backlot Studio Babelsberg also welcomed \u201cthe long-awaited agreement,\u201d saying it sent a \u201cstrong signal\u201d for Germany as an attractive production location.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGerman studios, producers and service providers now have a positive outlook and long-term planning security,\u201d said Babelsberg CEO J\u00f6rg Bachmaier.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdded M\u00fcntefering: \u201cThis compromise builds bridges between creativity and economic responsibility and sends an important signal ahead of the upcoming Berlinale<\/a>. Together, we can now show that Germany remains a vibrant place for storytelling, a place where cultural diversity becomes visible. German film has a future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"German commercial broadcasters and international streamers are, unsurprisingly, attacking new government plans, unveiled this week, to force them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5310],"tags":[96464,96462,220461,2000,299,1824,522],"class_list":["post-746290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-berlinale","tag-berlinale-2026","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-germany","tag-international"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116023866335301082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}