• Eligible Applicants
• Eligible Activities
• Budget
• Annexes

Within the specific objective of promoting transnational circulation, two of the priorities of the MEDIA Sub-programme shall be: to support transnational marketing, branding and distribution of audiovisual works on all other non-theatrical platforms and  to promote new distribution modes in order to foster the development of new business models.

Expected results:

• Strengthen the attractiveness of legally provided European Video On Demand (VOD) services,
• Increase the collaboration across borders between European VOD services and, potentially, the network effect,
• Improve the digital circulation of European audiovisual works,
• Increase the supply and the visibility and prominence of European audiovisual works on VOD services,
• Increase the audience of European films online
• Develop new business models.

Eligible Applicants

Entities (private companies, non-profit organisations, associations, charities, foundations, municipalities/Town Councils, etc.), established in one of the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme and owned directly or by majority participation, by nationals from such countries.

Individuals cannot apply to this funding scheme.

Eligible Activities

The Promotion of European Audiovisual Works Online scheme shall provide support to:

Action 1: Actions such as digital promotion, marketing, branding, tagging and development of new offers by existing VOD services offering a majority of European33 films. The aim of the action is to improve the visibility, discoverability and global audience of European audiovisual works and to increase cross border collaboration between European VOD services;

Action 2: the preparation of digital packages facilitating the commercialisation of European audiovisual works on VOD platforms, in particular heritage audiovisual works and/or more recent European audiovisual works having demonstrated commercial potential for online distribution;

Action 3: innovative strategies and online tools for the circulation, distribution and promotion of European audiovisual works, including audience development initiatives focusing on innovative and participatory strategies reaching out to wider audiences with European films.

Action 1. Support to Promotion, marketing and branding activities of VOD services

Eligible activities are actions such as digital promotion, marketing, branding, tagging and development of new offers by existing VOD services offering a majority of European works. The aim of the action is to improve the visibility, discoverability and the global audience of European audiovisual works and to increase cross-border collaboration between European VOD services.

The activities should present innovative, coherent and focused strategies in order to increase the global audience of the platforms and valorise their European catalogue. Clear requirements in terms of indicators, quantification and sharing of results should be part of the activities. Collaborations between VOD services on data collection and analysis, audience intelligence, marketing tools, etc. are encouraged.

Minimum European Dimension:

The catalogue of films of the VOD platforms must meet the following requirements:

• It must be constituted by at least a total of 500 available audiovisual works.
• It must be constituted by at least 50% of works from countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme.
• It must include audiovisual works from at least five countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme representing at least five different official languages of the European Union.
• No more than 40% of the audiovisual works may come from a single country.

European content should comply with the following conditions:

• The audiovisual work must be a fiction, an animation or a creative documentary, including feature films (i.e. feature length films), TV films or series and short films.
• Majority produced by a producer or producers established in the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme. To be considered as the actual producers the production companies must be credited as such. Other elements such as creative control, ownership of exploitation rights and share of profits may also be taken into account to determine who the actual producer is; and
• Produced with the significant participation of professionals who are nationals/residents of countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme. ‘Significant participation’ is defined as having more than 50% of the points on the basis of the table presented in the Guidelines.

Action 2. Support to the development of ‘On Line Ready’ packages

Eligible activities are those consisting in assembling and delivering digital packages of European audiovisual works foreseen for online releases in countries where those works are not available on any legal VOD service. It aims at extending their availability and visibility on VOD services provided in European and non-European countries.

Therefore these activities should facilitate the dissemination of European audiovisual works on VOD platforms available in the countries targeted by the project. The catalogue should focus on heritage audiovisual works and/or on more recent European audiovisual works having demonstrated commercial potential for online distribution. The catalogue should follow a clear editorial line and be accompanied by a specific marketing strategy.

The preparation of these packages may cover: the encoding, the subtitling of the audiovisual works, the provision of metadata, the development of transversal/multi-territories marketing strategies and material.

Eligible catalogue:

• The project must cover a catalogue of a minimum of 20 European audiovisual works. In case of catalogues constituted only by television series (fiction or animation), the catalogue must include a total of at least 20 episodes of one or several series.
• The catalogue must include audiovisual works from at least two countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme representing at least two different official languages of the European Union. In case of catalogues constituted only by television series, this criterion shall not apply.
• Each audiovisual work of the catalogue should be made available on VOD services in at least 3 other countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-Programme where they are not available on any legal VOD service. The additional availability of the films for non-European countries is accepted.

The development or creation of new VOD platforms is not eligible under the Action 2.

Action 3. Support to innovative strategies and online tools for the circulation, distribution and promotion of European audiovisual works, including audience development initiatives focusing on innovative and participatory strategies reaching out to wider audiences with European films.

This action is aimed at encouraging innovative strategies for distributing and promoting European audiovisual works. It shall aim at developing new business models or tools in order to improve the potential audience of European audiovisual works. It shall also aim at supporting online tools and/or databases facilitating the relationships between the various sectors of the European audiovisual industry.

Projects shall focus on the convergence and complementarity between off-line and online distribution platforms and/or the transnational availability of European audiovisual works within the digital environment and/or new approaches to audience development in the digital age beyond traditional distribution practices.

The action must focus on European audiovisual works. The audiovisual work must be a fiction, an animation or a creative documentary, including feature films (i.e. feature length films), TV films or series and short films.

European content must comply with the following conditions:

- Majority produced by a producer or producers established in the countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme. To be considered as the actual producers the production companies must be credited as such. Other elements such as creative control, ownership of exploitation rights and share of profits may also be taken into account to determine who the actual producer is; and

- Produced with the significant participation of professionals who are nationals/residents of countries participating in the MEDIA Sub-programme. ‘Significant participation’ is defined as having more than 50% of the points on the basis of the table presented in the Guidelines.

Budget

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at EUR 10.158.000.

The indicative split between the three actions will be the following:

• Action 1: an indicative amount of EUR 4 M.
• Action 2: an indicative amount of EUR 2.06 M.
• Action 3: an indicative amount of EUR 4.1 M.

In case, within any of the three actions, the number of received proposals fulfilling all the criteria of the call is not sufficient to allocate the full indicative budget for the action, the remaining funds may be reallocated to the other actions.

Annexes

Before you apply, it is necessary to carefully read The Guidelines regarding this call for Proposal as well as to download mandatory annexes and e-form: https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/creative-europe/funding/promotion-european-works-online-eacea-302018_en