Under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of Europe, an exploratory conference on "Preserving Independent Production, Diversity and Pluralism in Drama Series in Europe: Can International Cooperation be Part of the Solution?" was held in Budapest, on September 30th – October 1st, 2021.

The conference built on a study commissioned by the Council of Europe and Eurimages in 2019 from an independent consultant in order to better understand the changing environment created by the emergence of VOD platforms and the use of AI in the distribution of audiovisual content.

On April 1, 2022, in Strasbourg, Ministers of Culture through their joint declaration, expressed their concern about the challenges posed to cultural diversity and pluralism by the broad use of business models based on algorithmic recommendations, with specific reference to the audio-visual sector, and took note of the dominant position of global audio-visual media services and their impact on content production ecosystems and on European intellectual property ownership.

As a result of the Budapest Drama Series Process, the Council of Europe Pilot Programme for Series Co-production (VC 2934) is a three-year initiative which aims to increase the geographical and thematic diversity of audiovisual storytelling by strengthening international co-production practices through financial support for independently produced high-quality series. 

It is administered by the Council of Europe, home of Eurimages, with funding provided by donors through the organisation’s voluntary contributions system.

Donors may come from Eurimages and/or Council of Europe member states. The country of establishment of the Donor is considered as a Contributing country. The status of Contributing country enables eligible production companies established in that country to apply for the different support actions foreseen by the programme.

Aims:

•  Create a flexible financing mechanism to fit in with the extremely dynamic business environment for series.
•  Nourish independent serial storytelling in the form of international co-productions.
•  Stimulate the circulation of culturally and linguistically diverse works across the member states.
•  Include in the co-production the principles of shared IP and secondary rights ownership.
•  Integrate the participation of all audiovisual media service providers.
•  Incentivise the member state parties to keep creative control over the series co-production where players from outside the member states are involved.