Germany's private broadcasters have offered to more than double their annual voluntary contributions to the German Federal Film Board (FFA) to Euros 12m over the next five years until 2008.

Juergen Doetz, president of the commercial television interest group VPRT, indicated during a public hearing on the revised German Film Law (FFG) last week that his members would be prepared to offer Euros 7m worth of free advertising time to promote German films in addition to Euros 5m which would be made available for film/TV co-productions. At the moment, the private TV stations provide Euros 5.6m per year for co-productions.

However, according to VPRT spokesman Hartmut Schulz, the increase in contributions to the FFA would be conditional on the VPRT receiving a second seat on the FFA's allocation committee for project funding - public broadcasters ARD and ZDF each have their own committee representative.

Earlier this year, ARD and ZDF had informed the State Minister for Culture Christina Weiss that they were prepared to double their annual contributions from the present Euros 5.5m to Euros 11m from 2004 "under certain conditions defined by constitutional law".