The European Commission launched the preparatory action for subtitling cultural Tv content across Europe. The Action is aimed at supporting innovative strategies for the provision of subtitled versions of European cultural programmes In order to facilitate cross border on-line dissemination of cultural content. The main objective of the Action is to test the added value of subtitling on the on-line circulation and outreach of European cultural programming in the European Union.

In order to reach this goal, specific objectives have been set:

testing new business models for European audiovisual media service providers and assess whether providing subtitled versions of European  TV programmes can increase audience numbers  both within and beyond the European Union;

• facilitating cross border online dissemination of cultural content which is often slowed down by linguistic borders;
• comparing the audience reach of similar audiovisual content with and without subtitling and share the results publicly with EU stakeholders and public policy makers.

Concretely, the preparatory action should support the provision of a minimum of 300 hours of diverse European factual subtitled cultural content online in a number of European territories via 1-3 projects. The project has to Providing analysis to inform policy development on the impact of online provision of non-national subtitled factual content with a view to extending the audience of this factual cultural content in the European Union.

The duration of the proposed project must be maximum 30 months, starting on January 2018 and ending by 30 June 2020.

Eligibility

The proposal must be submitted by an applicant or a group of applicants (consortium) providing non-linear audiovisual media services within the meaning of the AVMS Directive 2010/13/EU, with a critical mass of audiovisual content. Only applications from legal entities established in the EU Member States are eligible.

Budget

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at 1.5 M euros. The action will be implemented by way of a call for proposals with a maximum aid intensity of 60% of the total eligible costs of the project(s).

Deadline for submitting applications is 15 September.

More information and official documentation are available here.