Arte plots European streaming expansion
September 4, 2026
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
Arte, the Franco-German channel, is seeking to integrate further EU territories and languages on its streaming platform. Seven languages are already available, with Romanian recently integrated, but the plan is to increase this number to at least 24 in the subsequent years, revealed Arte President Bruno Patino speaking at the channel’s new season press conference in Paris.
Talks are ongoing with the EU as part of the negotiations about the EU budget for the 2028-2034 period.
“The seven languages have been progressively added, and new ones will be announced shortly, but this project is achieved with a progressive financing depending on various European calls for bids. It hasn’t any specific budget yet but the support of France and German states helps its development. We’re currently discussing with the European Union to try to get a more stable and multi-year framework in terms of financing” Patino said.
Heike Hempel, president of Arte GEIE, added: “We try to get a foundation which makes it possible to develop this European perspective over the coming years, and not just from year to year going on with special projects. This summer, with the fires burning in France, Europe wasn’t just an idea, but it was on the ground with Norwegian, Ukrainian and German firemen struggling against flames. To surpass this strength, this solidarity, we need a channel that places the Euro perspective before the national one. That channel is Arte. Our reports, documentaries, series have looked beyond borders. Arte exists to offer a European perspective on events in addition to national offerings.”~
Defending “a certain idea of Europe and of the open society we want to live in”, the Arte channel has also continued to strengthen its network of broadcasting partners, now with 14 PSB channels – newly including NPO in the Netherlands and Suspilne in Ukraine.
In anticipation of becoming a player in a European network of creators and broadcasters, Arte has developed the hyper distribution of streaming service arte.tv. Offering some 90 per cent of Euro productions, it now claims 43 million subscribers to its social networks, up 63 per cent over three years, 3.3 billion views in 2025, up 65 per cent in the last three years and a monthly reach of 91 million European people. In France, the linear channel reaches a peak of 3.1 per cent market share.
Among key Euro co-productions or co-financed programmes announced in the 2026-2027 line-up are TV series Portobello by Marco Bellochio (Italy), Anatomia de un Instante by Alberto Rodriguez (Spain), Vigil season 3 (UK) as well as German-UK documentary Iran in War.
The French state allocation given to Arte amounted to €298.1 million in 2025, down by €13 million compared to that previously announced . In 2026, the allocation has been stable, noted Patino, but the Arte budget for 2027 will depend on the financing bill currently being drawn up by the French government.
