France Télévisions, Italy’s RAI and German broadcaster ZDF have joined forces to launch a new VoD platform which they admit is to combat the rise of the likes of Netflix.
Unveiled by France Télévisions’ Takis Candilis, Alliance aims to share funding of “large-scale” series.
The three companies said other broadcasters will also be welcomed into Alliance, including RTVE in Spain, RTBF and VRT in Belgium, RTS in Switzerland, and the BBC.
The three broadcasters will meet every two to three months to review projects.
Franck Feriling, vice president of international relations at ZDF also touted a possible “European content platform.”
Alliance has confirmed it has already given three projects the greenlight. The first is an eight-part series about the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. It will be produced by LuxVide and Beta Film, for a budget that France TV estimates at between €2.5 and 3.5 million per hour.
The other two are joint ventures between France TV and RAI for budgets around €2 million per episode. They are Mirage, a spy story produced by French production company Lincoln TV, to be shot in Dubai early 2019, and Eternal City, which takes place in Rome in the 1960s.
