Cultural Product Rights Under the 'Thousand Spring' Program to Belong to State Cinema and Information Space Protection Center – Ministry of Culture

In an effort to bolster the Ukrainian cultural landscape, the Ministry of Culture has unveiled the 'Thousand Spring' program, which will see property rights for cultural works produced under this initiative assigned to the State Cinema Agency and the State Enterprise 'Information Space Protection Center'. This announcement was made by Hanna Krasnostup during a press conference held in Kyiv, where she emphasized the significance of this program in the context of supporting and promoting Ukrainian cultural products.

Krasnostup explained that winners of competitions announced within the framework of the program will enter into licensing agreements. "This year, contracts will be signed with the competition winners. All property rights for the produced content—be it films, series, or animation—will belong to the State Cinema Agency. Meanwhile, property rights for other cultural products will be held by the State Enterprise 'Information Space Protection Center'," she stated, clarifying the distribution of rights among the involved entities.

Furthermore, Krasnostup highlighted that competition winners will have priority rights to sign licensing agreements. "If the winners do not express interest in such agreements, we will then initiate a process to find counterparties to distribute these works," she added, underscoring the importance of monetizing the created cultural products to ensure their sustainability and reach.

According to the information provided, individuals who enter into licensing agreements will obtain rights for a minimum of two years. Revenue generated from the sale of these products will be distributed proportionally to the share of state funding, but will not exceed that share. "The distribution will be proportional to the state funding share, but not more than the state funding share," Krasnostup noted, providing clarity on the financial aspects of the agreements.

After the two-year period concludes, all rights to the cultural product will revert to the state, which will then have the option to either grant a new license or distribute the works independently. "We already have a practice in place where we transfer films produced in previous years from the State Enterprise 'Information Space Protection Center' to colleagues on channels, allowing them to distribute it free of charge," she emphasized, illustrating the collaborative efforts in promoting Ukrainian cultural content.

It is important to note that on April 3, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine announced the commencement of the application submission process for this initiative aimed at creating Ukrainian cultural products, which was previously known as '1000 Hours of Ukrainian Content' and has now been rebranded as 'Thousand Spring'.

In the state budget for 2026, the Ministry of Culture has allocated 4 billion hryvnias for the implementation of this program. Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Tetiana Berezhna, reported that in 2026, a maximum of 80% of the 4 billion hryvnias, amounting to 3.2 billion hryvnias, will be allocated to the 'Thousand Spring' program.

Berezhna also indicated that the Ministry of Culture plans to propose funding for the 'Thousand Spring' program in the state budget for 2027, reflecting the government's ongoing commitment to supporting Ukrainian cultural products and ensuring their continued development and promotion.