International and local German streaming and VoD services have agreed to invest a total €15bn in German production over the next five years.
The voluntary commitment is the result of top-level negotiations led by Wolfram Weimer, state minister for culture and media (BKM), with the heads of the US streamers and representatives of the German public and private broadcasters. It is an alternative to binding legislation, which would have seen an investment obligation.
According to the agreement, the international streaming services will commit a total of €1.83bn (€366m per year) between 2026 and 2030, while the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF and ARD’s film rights and production arm Degeto Film will provide € 6.5bn and the private networks ProSiebenSat1 and RTL Deutschland would invest a total of €7bn in German production over five years.
Speaking on the German arts programme ttt - titel thesen temperamente on December 7, Weimer explained he had pursued the solution of a voluntary commitment from the streamers and other VoD services since a law imposing an investment obligation would have allowed the streamers to follow EU legislation and produce their films elsewhere in Europe where investment agreements were not in place.
“The compulsion of a law would lead to the money not flowing primarily to German productions,” he argued, pointing to the urgent need for investment in the German film industry. “The production landscape has its back against the wall. It is in really bad shape. It has been through several years of severe recession. That’s why I said we need to take big steps.”
“A sham”
However, the prospect of a voluntary commitment has not been well received by Germany’s producers’ body, the Produktionsallianz, which has long been campaigning for legislation for an investment obligation.
Michelle Müntefering, CEO of the Produktionsallianz, called the billions in investment announced by Weimer “a sham”. In a statement, she pointed out that, for example, an investment obligation of 15% of the revenue generated by the international streamers in Germany would raise up to €3.88bn over the five-year period compared to the €1.83bn expected as part of the planned voluntary agreement.
“The truth is that voluntary commitments will not even mobilise half of the investments that would be possible with a statutory investment obligation,” she suggested. “Moreover, these voluntary commitments are extremely opaque. It is neither clear exactly which investments they cover nor how compliance is to be monitored.”
Münterfering also said that account should be taken of “the unpredictable developments of international players, as demonstrated once again by Netflix’s takeover of Warner. If it merely reflects the current state of affairs, any voluntary commitment will quickly become obsolete.”
Ulrich Meinhard, board chairman of the German Agents Association (VdA), which has a membership of 39 talent agencies, said of the voluntary commitment: “It is neither clearly defined what kind of productions are actually to be financed, nor whether the funds will flow into new fictional content, creative story development or merely into purchasing licenses and marketing.”
“Investments that are being announced as a major boost for the future are often turning out to be expenditures that were planned anyway. The actual additional impact for Germany as a location, therefore, remains minimal,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, Sven Lehmann, chair of the German parliament’s Culture and Media Committee and the Green Party Bundestag deputy, expressed his opposition to Weimer’s plan. He noted: “The voluntary declarations of intent are not binding in any way. They offer neither planning security nor do they ensure that more films will be produced in Germany.
“Only a tax incentive model and a genuine investment obligation would create the long-term planning security that Germany as a film hub so urgently needs,” he said.
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