Translation of the article:
Germany and France want to deepen their cooperation in the media sector and combat disinformation. Among other things, there are plans to expand the Arte broadcasting network into a European platform.
A corresponding declaration was signed at the Franco-German Ministerial Council in Toulon, as announced by Minister of State for Culture Weimer (independent). Arte is a “model of success and a beacon of the European idea.” The goal is to develop a European streaming service in 24 languages that will complement national broadcasting and media services and tap into new target groups. Cooperation between Deutsche Welle and France Médias Monde will also be expanded Germany and France also agreed to strengthen cooperation between the international broadcasters Deutsche Welle and France Médias Monde. Together, they want to disseminate reliable information far beyond the borders of the EU, Weimer explained. The cooperation is also a response to the US withdrawal from funding independent media. Among other things, President Trump had cut subsidies for the US foreign media outlets Voice of Europe and Radio Free Europe. This news was broadcast on August 30, 2025, on the Deutschlandfunk program.
For the lost non-Europeans here: I guess it is a TV channel about art(?). What’s so good about it?
What I think the other comments didn’t emphasised enough is that Arte covers all culture. Not just artsy fartsy stuff, not just what the mainstream likes (but that as well), but really everything.
Due to them most of the Tarantino movies were available for free on YouTube for a while. They will show action movies, b-movies, cunts, dicks, erotica, French culture, German culture, hentai, Indian movies, Japanese video games, k-pop, lesbian dramas, mainstream, Norwegian metal, operations, pop music, quantum physics, reggae music, superheroes, technology, underground, vehicles, wrestling, x-rays, Yankees, zombies. And when they’re done with all that they look for more things to pluck from the whole of human experience.
In Germany public broadcasters have a mandate to educate. And I think Arte is the only channel taking that really seriously.
Two things:
Arte is literally where I learned what hentai is.
It’s not really about art (although you can get some wild art stuff on there), more about culture in general.
It’s got a ton of documentaries about all manner of things, movies you’d otherwise only find in arthouse cinemas, concert recordings from classical to hip-hop to death metal.
And it’s taxpayer funded (or close enough to it). And it’s one of very few cross-border TV station collaborations between public broadcasters in Europe (explicitly made to spread German and French culture across the border), which is pretty cool to begin with.
Check it out: https://www.arte.tv/en/
Dont forget they do all that with such a small budget compared to others
Example for art stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-oAtxjnDlQ
Cool, thanks.
I really like Karambolage, it is a lets call it documentary which shows german-french peculiarities, like food, history or just how certain expressions developed. It is always with a little wink about our local uniqueness and tries to explain one side to the other. If you speak german or french, I highly recommend it.
One example from memory which always get used as example by our family if we try to explain it:
I always hoped that something like Karambolage comes from every country and then they get shown to the others. This way we all learn about each other. And most imporant thing to learn: we are all human and not so different in the end.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte
It is a project of european (mostly German/French) cooperation, providing primarily cultural content, always offered in both or more languages. No advertisements or common denominator slop.