Leading German TV production companies such as Beta Film and Brainpool apparently want to set up a video-on-demand (VOD) portal in competition to US provider Netflix.
At least one commercial subsidiary of a public broadcaster will participate, probably from ARD, reports German business newspaper Handelsblatt. “We are currently evaluating whether it is possible to develop a financially viable offering which won’t face anti-trust problems,” a person involved in the project told the paper.
The first attempt by the producers to create a joint VOD platform with public broadcasters ARD and ZDF under the working title Germany’s Gold was blocked by Federal Cartel Office Bundeskartellamt in 2013, just like a previous project planned by commercial TV groups RTL and ProSiebenSat.1.
As this time only ARD will apparently be part of the shareholders, the initiators hope for better chances to gain anti-trust approval. Through production companies holding the rights on ZDF productions, programmes from the Mainz-based broadcaster would still be part of the line-up.
First reports about the new thrust to set a German VOD platform by domestic players emerged in July 2014.