Ongoing application processes to close at the end of October
Our grants that are open for ongoing application, i.e. grants for AV works such as support for international promotion as well as training and course grants, will be open to applications until 31 October 2024. The support for audiovisual culture will not be open to applications this year.
The aim is to make decisions on the grants by the end of 2024. Conditional decision on the grants for works will not be made for next year.
Accounts and clarifications can be submitted as normal. Payments necessitated by any submissions that we receive by 5 December and that can be approved without additional clarifications will be made by the end of the year.
A notification on the reopening of applications will be provided in early 2025, once our funding situation is clarified.
Applications for Kehittämö and Mediarata to be opened
Kehittämö, the joint project of AVEK and the Finnish Cultural Foundation that focuses on the professional development of new creators, will also continue next year. The application window will be open 1 October–13 December 2024.
The application instructions will be released on our website before the application process begins. The decisions on the ten shortlisted creators will be made in February 2025.
The Ministry of Education and Culture has granted a special appropriation for the development of the production culture of media art. Next year, we will be distributing EUR 105,000 of these funds. The application window will be open 11 November–13 December 2024. The decisions will be made in January 2025. This time, the period for using the financial support is shorter than before: eight months.
The specific funding situation for 2025 remains open – there is a desire to plan the operations with the field at large
In spring, the Government’s spending limits session decided to halve the total sum of the compensation for private copying to MEUR 5.5. The budget session held in the autumn set the compensation at the planned level for 2025. We have received roughly MEUR 2.5 each year for distribution. The share of AVEK’s work grants, support for international promotion, training and course support, support for audiovisual culture and AVEK’s Kehittämö grant comes from these funds.
The cutback of the compensation fee will most likely result in the compensation funds that are distributed through us being halved to MEUR 1.25. That said, we do not yet know the specific level of our funding, which is why it is challenging to estimate the impacts of the cutbacks on our operations.
“The cut is so drastic that the impacts on our operations will be massive, but there are no related guidelines at present. We want to plan the future of AVEK through discussion with operators and creators in the AV field. As such, we will organise meetings on pertinent themes for creators and other stakeholders over the course of the autumn,” says Director of AVEK Ulla Simonen.
In addition to the compensation for private copying, we receive special appropriations from the Ministry of Education and Culture for the Mediarata, CreaDemo and DigiDemo grants. There is currently no information available on the level of appropriations for 2025.
A revision of the compensation system is being explored
The compensation for private copying is compensation based on an EU directive and the Copyright Act, which is paid to authors of creative works for the right of each citizen to copy legal works for private use. In August, the Ministry of Education and Culture initiated an investigation on the revision of the compensation for private copying. The report, which is set to be completed by the end of 2024, will evaluate potential financing options for the compensation, their practical implementation, the level of compensation, and the distribution and allocation of the compensation to copyright holders.
In the opinion of AVEK and Kopiosto, the revision must be conducted based on the investigation kicked off by the Ministry of Education and Culture. We feel that it is premature to halve the compensation with the investigation still under way. We are working with Kopiosto and other organisations in the creative industries to ensure that this wrong can still be righted.
Reasonable compensation for private copying is based on law and an EU directive and is not a discretionary form of support for culture. Based on an analysis released in August 2024, the harm caused by the private copying of creative content, such as music and audiovisual materials, results in annual losses of about MEUR 46 in sales and streaming revenue.
The aim of Kopiosto and AVEK is to revise the compensation system for private copying as quickly as possible. We want a balanced and good model for Finland that will secure due copyright compensation for creators and AVEK’s operational preconditions for the future. For this purpose, we will be providing the person conducting the investigation with access to all of our expertise and knowledge to ensure a proposal for a new system that is as viable as possible.
