The Swiss film industry will receive $33.3m (CHF 50.4m) production support over the next three years with the signing of a third expanded Audiovisual Pact between public broadcaster SRG SSR idee suisse and the Swiss film industry in Locarno this week.

The new pact will see SRG SSR providing a total of Swiss Francs (CHF) 50.4m between 2003 and 2005, with $4m (CHF 6m) being made available annually for national feature productions, $4.9m (CHF 7.4m) for TV productions, $2m (CHF 3.1m) as premiums for TV rating successes, and $590,000 (CHF 900,000) earmarked for animation production.

The Audiovisual Pact was launched at Locarno six years ago with a volume of $18.4m (CHF 27.9m) for its first three years and was then boosted to $32.7m (CHF 49.5m) for the past three years to promote the production of Swiss features and TV productions and their broadcasting by SRG SSR.