press kit
ARTE
the European
culture
channel
ARTE EUROPE
DOSSIER DE PRESSE
ARTE
the European
culture
channel
1
in French, German,
English, Spanish,
and now in Polish
ARTE, a public channel
ARTE is a public service European culture channel that puts creativity, diversity and
innovation at the centre of its programmes. It was established in 1991 by France and Germany,
and sets the benchmark in Europe and around the world for quality programming.
French and German TV licence fees cover 95% of ARTE’s budget. It cannot rely on advertising
but may develop its own revenue streams, in particular by soliciting sponsorships.
A European channel
ARTE has built partnerships with many public service channels in Europe. These partnerships
are a testament to ARTE’s determination to produce and broadcast programmes that capture
Europe’s creativity and diversity, in keeping with the contract that founded the channel, and
the open-minded attitude that led to its inception.
The channel has thus signed partnership or cooperation agreements with nine other European
public channels in Belgium (RTBF), Austria (ORF), the Czech Republic (ČT), Italy (RAI Com),
Ireland (RTÉ), Poland (TVP), Greece (ERT), Switzerland (SSR-SRG), and Finland (YLE).
The partner channels and ARTE exchange content and pledge to work on a large number of
coproductions. Partners also take part in ARTE’s decision making processes in a consultative
capacity.
Cooperation agreements, on the other hand, cover the development of a number of coproductions spanning all broadcast formats and genres. They attend ARTE’s conference on programmes in a consulting capacity.
Moreover, 85% of the programmes that ARTE produces or broadcasts are European productions.
ARTE’s head office is in Strasbourg, a stone’s throw from the European Parliament, the Council
of Europe, and the European Court of Human Rights. The symbolism of its location is threefold: a successful presence in Europe’s broadcast landscape; France and Germany’s fruitful
friendship; and an enthusiastically and decidedly open attitude towards Europe.
ARTE EUROPE
press kit
2
A culture channel
Every programme with a cultural slant –
documentaries, dramas, films, magazine news
shows, concerts and performances – has a
home on ARTE. About 55% of the programmes are documentaries, 25% films and fiction,
15% news-related programmes and 5% feature
music and other performing arts.
About two-thirds of the programmes broadcast on ARTE are previously unreleased.
distribution of the PROGRAMmes
by GENRE (24H/24H)
DOCUMENTARIES 54 %
cinema / short PROG.
18 %
INFORMATION / MAGAZINES 15 %
FICTION / series
8%
performances
5%
A head start in digital
ARTE was one of the first channels to offer an
online catch-up TV service, ARTE+7.
ARTE is putting a huge amount of effort into
being as accessible to as wide an audience as
possible, irrespective of how those audiences
access content, whether satellite, cable, ADSL,
Smart TV or mobile.
ARTE is therefore accessible Europe-wide and
has 11 million unique site visits each month.
The channel is also developing not only its digital reach but its digital expertise with a number of
360 degree films, and in December 2015 launched ARTE 360, a dedicated app.
Multilingual experience
ARTE has been French and German since its birth, and perfectly masters the challenges of bilingualism. ARTE makes the most of this expertise by regularly taking on multilingual projects:
• In 2014, ARTE teamed up with the European Parliament’s LUX Film Prize to feature Feo
Aladag’s film Die Fremde (When We Leave) – which won the LUX Film Prize in 2010 – in
the European Union’s 24 languages, for 90 days, free of charge;
• In May 2015, it introduced The Opera Platform, a joint endeavour by ARTE and 16 European partners (15 opera houses in 12 countries, and the Opera Europa network), cofinanced by Creative Europe’s Culture programme. This platform has a trilingual interface
(in French, German and English), and features live opera recordings subtitled in six languages (French, German, English, Spanish, Italian and Polish);
• And, since November 2015, ARTE has entered a new phase in its development with the
launch of the ARTE Europe initiative.
ARTE EUROPE
DOSSIER DE PRESSE
3
In November 2015, ARTE made the most of its multilingual and digital knowhow to become quadrilingual with the launch of English and Spanish subtitles on
www.arte.tv/en and www.arte.tv/es respectively.
The channel has been offering programmes subtitled in Polish on
www.arte.tv/pl since November 2016.
All of the languages are available free of charge on ARTE websites, its applications
for connected TVs, and its apps for mobile devices.
ARTE is taking its vision of a shared European culture into the next phase of its
development.
ARTE EUROPE
press kit
4
The European Union’s driving role
Linguistic diversity being part of Europe’s cultural richness, this initiative aims to bring Europe’s citizens a larger
choice of high-quality TV programmes in their original
language, to bring everyone a choice of best-in-class
creative programmes.
The initiative was made possible by the launch of an EU
pilot project with the aim of “testing the impact of subtitles on the circulation and online audiences of audio-visual content in the heart of the EU.”
ARTE, after having responded to the EU’s tender, obtained two years of co-financing for an
experimental project to distribute factual programming of strong cultural value, on a European
scale: in other words, ARTE Europe.
The co-financing from the European Union enabled ARTE to offer English and Spanish subtitles
in November 2015, and to expand the scope of the experiment in November 2016 with the addition of Polish subtitles.
ARTE wishes to extend the project beyond autumn 2017.
English, Spanish and Polish
The ARTE Europe project aims to add language versions to a selection of ARTE programmes already available in French and German. ARTE’s existing quadrilingual content can
reach around 275 million Europeans, i.e. about 55% of Europe’s 505 million citizens, in their
mother tongue. Adding versions subtitled in Polish could make these programmes available
to 305 million European citizens, i.e. 60% of the total, in their mother tongue. These figures
don’t even include the many other Europeans who also understand and speak one of these
five languages, in addition to their mother tongue.
32 %
of Europeans
From 32% of
European citizens
(French and
German) in 2015...
60 %
...to 60% of
European citizens
today (French,
German, English,
Spanish and Polish).
of Europeans
ARTE EUROPE
DOSSIER DE PRESSE
5
A window into European culture
By covering three of the world’s five most spoken languages, the many programmes available worldwide under this project could reach new audiences outside the European Union and
promote European culture within and beyond the Union.
The offering
ARTE in English, ARTE en español and ARTE po polsku are available online. They provide
subtitled versions – in English, Spanish and Polish respectively – of a selection of 600
hours of factual European programmes, excluding the channel’s news, drama and films.
This selection of programmes encompasses ARTE’s flagship magazine shows, a large number of documentaries, and web-native documentaries. Live recordings of shows from across
Europe enhance the offering.
With more than 15 hours of new programming per week, available usually between 7 to 90
days, the offering is kept fresh whilst retaining a solid baseline catalogue.
The selected programmes are therefore available in five European languages (French, German, English, Spanish and Polish) simultaneously throughout Europe (in the 28 European
Union Member States, and in European Free Trade Association Member States, namely Iceland, Norway, Lichtenstein and Switzerland). About half of them are also available around
the world.
Programme broadcasting rights
On account of its binational status, ARTE has been acquiring rights since its inception to broadcast French and German versions of its programmes internationally whenever able. In the first
half of 2016, 66% of the programmes it supplied on its catch-up platform included broadcasting
rights for Europe and, in several cases, the world.
ARTE has leveraged this solid foundation to develop the acquisition of rights to add English,
Spanish and Polish versions of these programmes whenever possible, in order to promote the
circulation of high-quality European broadcast content.
ARTE EUROPE
press kit
Where to watch ARTE programmes in English,
Spanish and Polish?
ARTE programmes in English
are available on arte.tv/en.
ARTE programmes in Spanish
are available on arte.tv/es.
ARTE programmes in Polish
are available on arte.tv/pl.
All the programmes available in five languages –
French, German, English, Spanish and Polish – are on
www.arte.tv, ARTE+7, and ARTE’s applications for
connected TVs and apps for mobile devices.
6
ARTE EUROPE
press kit
7
A wealth of content
The programmes that are available in the five languages address Europeans’ concerns, their cultural heritage, and lively contemporary culture with:
A selection of documentaries (culture,
history, society, science, geopolitics,
travel and investigations), along with a
series of web-native documentaries.
The Urgent Need to Slow Down
People around the planet are refusing to yield
to the diktats of urgency and instant gratification, to give time meaning once again.
The Great Duels of Art
This documentary series recounts the three
rivalries that shaped the history of art: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Vincent
Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, Max Liebermann
and Emil Nolde.
Black and Proud
The writer and academic Alain Mabanckou
presents this series on the Black Lives Matter
movement, and the murderous injustices that
sparked its rise.
ARTE EUROPE
press kit
ARTE’s flagship magazine shows, shedding light on cultural news and exploring
the planet’s every facet, with expert insights, big stories, and a distinctly European perspective and cultural slant.
8
Metropolis, the European culture magazine
show, takes an original and critical look at the
latest in European arts and culture.
Tracks is the free-thinking magazine show
that tracks today’s trends and countercultures. It’s your inside scoop on all things indie
and underground.
As well as:
Mapping the World, Square, FutureMag,
Yourope, Vox Pop, Xenius, Streetphilosophy
and more.
Live recordings
from ARTE Concert
featuring world
music, pop, rock,
jazz or dance, such
as: Christine & The
Queens, Belle and
Sebastian, John
Cale, Le Frankfurt
Radio Symphony
and Andrés OrozcoEstrada (and many
other artists).
ARTE Reportage assesses all the big stories
in Europe and internationally, and untangles
events from the world’s hotspots.
ARTE EUROPE
DOSSIER DE PRESSE
9
With the European Union’s support, ARTE is taking its European development
to the next level, and taking a stand to help broadcast content flow freely
within Europe.
France and Germany welcomed this new project in a joint statement from the
Franco-German Council of Ministers’ meeting in Berlin in March 2015. Both
countries support “ARTE’s ambition to strengthen Europe through culture [...]
by enhancing the distribution of its cultural programming within Europe to
allow the plurality of our identities and the bond of our shared values to shine
all the more brightly.”
Social media
ARTE in five languages on Facebook: www.facebook.com/arte
Twitter : @artefr | @artede | @arteen | @arteesp | @artepl
Newsletter
From mid-December 2016 onwards, you can sign up to the English, Spanish and Polish newsletters over
on arte.tv/en, arte.tv/es and arte.tv/pl.
Contact
Claude-Anne Savin
Head of Press and PR
[email protected]
T. 0033 (0) 3 88 14 24 98
ARTE G.E.I.E.
4, quai du Chanoine Winterer
BP 20035
67080 Strasbourg Cedex
Postfach 1980 - 77679 Kehl
t +33 (0)3 88 14 22 22
COPYRIGHT:
front & backcover : © gédéon programmes // PAGE 1 : © Iliade Productions // PAGE 3 : © olivier lemaire ; © PSC FOTO ; © ARTE FRAnce // PAGE 5 : ARTE France
/ © Iliade Productions // PAGE 7 : ARTE ; ARTE F © Ferme du Bec Hellouin ; Bachibouzouk // PAGE 8 : arte / © Agathe Poupeney