Norway

[NO] Amendments to Regulations for Audiovisual Production Support

IRIS 2005-3:1/30

Nils Klevjer Aas

Norwegian Film Institute

Following last year's Green Paper, which reviewed current production support scheme practices (see IRIS 2004-4: 14), the Norwegian government on 28 January 2005 announced amendments to the Regulations on Support for Audiovisual Productions (Regulations of 20 November 2003 no. 174). The amended Regulations entered into force on 1 February 2005.

The new Regulations represent a moderate tightening of the conditions for support and reimbursement: Calculation of the base for reimbursement of soft-loan support will from now on also include the producer's (stipulated) income from secondary exploitation (video/DVD sales, television screenings etc.). Reimbursement is set at a flat 35% rate of total net income from the production in question. Such net income is defined as including financial awards under the (automatic) Box-Office Bonus support scheme. Finally, the Ministry for Cultural and Church Affairs explicitly excludes financing raised from any public source (regional funds, grants from local authorities etc.) from being included in the producer's admissible equity investment.