Belgian operator Telenet has announced that the company wants to make an additional amount of a total of €30 million available to the Flemish production sector.
The amount will be offered over a period of four years for investment into the creation and production of quality Flemish fiction programmes and other Flemish programmes and formats.
The “Telenet Stimulus for Audiovisual Productions in Flanders”, or “Telenet STAP” for short, is intended to encourage the Flemish audiovisual world to continue developing high-quality local television and film productions, according to the operator. The Telenet STAP will be operational from 2013 onwards.
Telenet said it has invested a great deal of time in listening to a large number of players from the Flemish media landscape. These discussions have revealed a growing concern about the tenability of the funding of Flemish television productions. Revenues in the audiovisual sector are under pressure, while more and even better Flemish productions are being demanded for the same or lower budgets.
?Support for the Flemish television and film production?“Telenet accepts its responsibility as a Flemish distributor, and intends to help maintain the current high level of successful and high-quality Flemish content” said Ann Caluwaerts, SVP, media and public affairs, Telenet.
“This is why we are establishing Telenet STAP today, with the aim of investing up to 30 million euros in Flemish television and film productions over a period of 4 years. In this way, we are boosting the creative sector, we will ensure that Flemish fiction remains affordable for the Flemish viewer, and we are trying to neutralise the potential impact of the changing media landscape on local production budgets as far as possible”.
“Telenet is making major investments and this will boost the annual spending in the Flemish audio-visual production sector substantially. This will make it possible to realise a number of new productions every year that would otherwise not have materialised. This ensures the growth of the sector.”
