Funds for the media
The Netherlands has three funds for the media: the Media Fund, the CoBo Fund and the Journalism Promotion Fund. These funds support media productions and provide grants.
Dutch Cultural Media Fund: support for cultural productions
The Dutch Cultural Media Fund supports cultural productions for public broadcasting, and cooperation between broadcasters and cultural institutions. The Media Fund also promotes the development of:
- radio and TV productions;
- websites;
- combinations of radio, TV and websites.
The government plans to abolish the Media Fund as of 1 January 2017, a saving of €16 million. The Fund’s tasks will be taken over by the Netherlands Public Broadcasting Organisation (NPO).
CoBo Fund: promoting co-productions
The CoBo Fund promotes the co-production of films and documentaries by public broadcasters, or public broadcasters and independent producers.
Journalism Promotion Fund
The Journalism Promotion Fund promotes high-quality, diverse and independent journalism.
The Fund may, for example, support newspapers or news magazines whose existence is under threat. It also supports journalistic websites and innovative projects relating to the press and journalism.
To prevent journalistic media from becoming dependent on government aid, support from the Fund is always temporary.