The main changes to the Audiovisual Act are the extension of support to TV and VOD productions, support for the gaming industry and a new mechanism for film incentives.
The House of Representatives discussed the draft amendment to the Audiovisual Act in its third reading on Friday 25 October. It is expected to come into force on 1 January 2025. The amendment is one of the key legislative proposals of the Ministry of Culture.
"The audiovisual sector has changed in recent years and it was necessary to respond to this. After almost two years of intensive work, we have here a law that responds to this significant change and will ensure funding and a predictable future for audiovisual," said Minister of Culture Martin Baxa.
The amendment aims to improve the financing of cinema, television production and VOD platforms in the form of offers, the amount of which will now be based on the performance of the audiovisual industry. The fees for individual audiovisual actors (commercial television, cinemas, cinema distributors, Czech and foreign VOD) will be unified at 2% of the parafiscal fee. It wants to incentivise VOD platforms to invest in local content creation by setting a legal percentage of turnover.
The amendment transforms the State Cinematography Fund into the State Audiovisual Fund. It also extends the support possibilities to "small screen", i.e. production for TV or streaming platforms, extends the support possibilities to computer game development and animation production and changes the system of film incentives.
Source: mediaguru.cz
