The old-style media funds have at last come to the end of the road after the first cabinet under Germany's new Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The new Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrueck was able to keep to his plan of retaining the original cut-off point of November 11 for the changes to the Income Tax Code which axed tax-saving models, widely used for film investment.

According to German press reports appearing on the eve of the cabinet sitting, there had been some resistance from certain quarters in the CDU and SPD to Steinbrueck's insistence on backdating the end of the funds.

There had been an undercurrent of support for an alternative scenario which would have seen the cut-off point coming at midnight on Thursday evening and thus allowed the funds to accept investors until last night (Nov 24).

Speaking before the cabinet's decision, Michael Oehme, board member of the German media funds interest group VDM, appealed once more to the Merkel administration to not let the media industry fall into a black hole.

"We are prepared any time to continue the talks about a German spend," he said.