France and Germany aim to work together to transform the Arte TV channel into a major content platform in Europe.
The plan, confirmed by French and German Ministers of Culture Rachida Dati and Wolfram Weimer, is designed to expand the scope of European content and counter the spread of disinformation at a conference in Paris held on Wednesday (June 11).
Dati welcomed a group of European Ministers of Culture to Paris for a work day dedicated to strengthening European culture.
The Minister reaffirmed their commitment to enforce regulations to promote Europe’s creation, such as the AVM directive, strengthened copyright laws in the face of accelerated development of AI, and increased funding for the arts and entertainment industry through initiatives such as the Creative European Media Program, Alliance for Language Technology (ALT-EDIC), and Digital Europe.
Arte is a publicly funded Franco-German channel known for its drama content of fame, including coverage of European film production and cultural events. The long-term goal outlined by the Minister’s group is to develop streaming services available in multiple languages to reach more audiences and provide content ranging from news to films and series.
The minister said Arte’s move is amidst the spread of disinformation around the world, coupled with the current US government-funded move towards international media. This meant that Europe was required to “hear the voice of freedom louder in the world,” German Culture Minister Weimer said at the Paris conference.
The Paris conference of Ministers of Culture also included the presidents of Arte President Heike Hempel and Arte France Bruno Patino.
It comes after European politicians, decision makers and producers gathered together during the Cannes Film Festival to highlight the urgent need to support funding and regulation of public films that promote independent production, local narratives and diverse industries amid an increasing threat to democracy at home and abroad. The driving force was President Donald Trump’s announcement of plans to impose tariffs on “foreign” films and attack the EU’s AVMS directive.
Neither the Minister of Culture nor Arte has detailed details on how the Arte European platform is funded or what languages and territory are available.
Addressing the media after the meeting, Dati said, “the challenge of converting Arte into a European reference platform and from the perspective of accessible European languages, as well as the content it can produce and broadcast.” She said the project “is directly contributing to fostering all that can interfere with critical thinking and populism, and the attempts of foreign intervention through its quality of content, as it directly contributes to fostering everything that can be in the way of critical thinking and populism and build an attempt to interfere with foreign intervention.”
(TagstoTranslate)Europe (T)France (T)Germany (T)Streaming
