In a few months, Danish producers of quality innovative TV Dramas and documentaries for local commercial broadcasters will be able to tap into the new DKK 75 million Public Service Pulje (Public Service Fund) administered by the Danish Film Institute on behalf of the Danish government.
Details of the Public Service Pulje (PSP) were outlined last week at the Danish Film Institute (DFI) by the agency's Head of Production and Development Claus Ladegaard (photo) who will supervise the Fund, and producer Bo Mortensen, appointed as the daily administrator.
Described by Ladegaard as "another and new way of supporting public service broadcasting", PSP is part of the Danish government's Media Policy Agreement 2007-2010, and has recently been approved by the EU. Its aim is to "contribute to the development of original and innovative quality TV by supporting the development and production of TV Dramas and TV documentaries on commercial terrestrial channels in Denmark."
Ladegaard is one of the three-member steering committee who will oversee the selection process. At his side is Bo Damgaard, former programme director for TV2 Denmark, and Magdalena Jangaard, former head of Drama for Swedish public broadcaster SVT in Göteborg, well known within the Danish production sector.
Hereunder are the key criteria and conditions for PSP support:
- Grants will be distributed to Danish television broadcasters not funded by license fees and with a household penetration of minimum 50 %. They will be allocated to programs that will premiere on local channels other than DR, TV 2 regional channels and non-commercial local televisions. Programs will have to be broadcast between 18h30 and 23h.
- Grants will cover 25% of development costs both for TV Dramas and TV Documentaries, 50% of TV Dramas' production costs and 20% of TV Documentaries' production costs.
- 70% of PSP's overall budget of DKK75 million, available for the remaining three years, will be allocated to TV Drama and 30% to TV Documentary.
The key criteria for allocation of subsidies are that programs must be original and innovative both in content and format.
- TV Drama support will be allocated at script stage to original programs developed for television. Formats can vary, from long series (Forbrydelsen), short series (Nynne), episodes (e.g. Varg Veum in Norway), mini-series (Forestillinger) to single Dramas (Masturbator).
- TV Documentary support will be allocated to TV documentaries (series or single programs of 25 to 52 minutes), documentary series (journalistic, creative, historic or portraits aired on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis), or documentary programs (single programs or reportages).
- Mix formats (between fiction and documentaries will also be considered (e.g. TV-Nation/USA)
The first round of applications will be on February 2008.
For more information, please check on:
www.dfi.dk/filmstoette/publicservicepuljen