‘Cultural contribution’ streaming levy yields $15m in new funds for Danish production

Denmark’s new cultural contribution streaming levy yielded 94.7 million kroner (US$15m) in its first year, paid by 14 streaming services, according to media outlet MediaWatch.

Anna Pose Nielsen

Gyrithe Lemche

Typically, streaming services are required to pay a 2% cultural contribution on local revenue, but streamers that do not invest in Danish content must pay a higher percentage.

The exact amounts from each streamer were not disclosed in the documents MediaWatch obtained from authorities, but in the first round TV 2 Play and Viaplay each contributed the minimum of 2%.

“The Danish Producers’ Association is pleased that the streaming levy scheme is helping to secure funding for even more quality Danish films and series,” director Anna Pose Nielsen, Producers’ Association, told C21.

In early spring, 17 streaming services signed up and agreed to report on their Danish operations, including Prime Video, Google, Netflix, TV 2 Denmark, Disney+, and Viaplay Group.

Initially, the major players, TV 2 Play and Viaplay Denmark, were less than enthusiastic about a tax on their Danish revenue. The streamer/broadcasters believed they already invest enough in the Danish production market on their own initiative.

TV 2 stated that it was unnatural for a Danish company to be taxed when it already produces substantial Danish content, but has since come onboard with the scheme.

“We are basically satisfied with a minimum tax rate of 2% since it benefits Danish content production”, CEO Anne Engdal Stig Christensen, TV 2 Denmark, told Mediawatch.

While Denmark implemented the levy in January 2025, Norway plans to introduce the investment obligation in 2026, requiring streamers to invest at least 4% of their annual revenue in Norwegian-language audiovisual works.

Finland intends to implement a levy on streamers in 2028. In Sweden, the idea is actively being discussed, while Iceland is preparing a draft law that would require direct investments in local productions or have streamers contribute up to 5% of their Icelandic subscription revenue annually to the Icelandic Film Centre.