RTÉ has agreed a new co-production partnership with European culture channel ARTE to make arts, culture, factual, history and natural history programming.

The two public service broadcasters will contribute a minimum of €250,000 a year to develop new programmes.

RTÉ said the agreement, which will initially run for two years, will also bring Irish cultural content to an international audience through the Franco-German broadcaster’s online platforms.

“This is an important partnership,” said RTÉ director-general Dee Forbes. “Showcasing the best of Ireland, particularly in the area of arts and culture, is something that RTÉ takes very seriously.”

Selected RTÉ arts programming, documentaries and performances by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will be made available through online channels ARTE Concert and ARTE in English, while ARTE’s content will be made accessible through the RTÉ Player.

Ms Forbes has highlighted the need for RTÉ to form more partnerships and alliances with both competitors, or “frenemies”, and its peers across Europe. Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK is one of the organisations with which it has developed closer links in recent years.

Separately, RTÉ is planning more arts co-productions with BBC Four, following the critical success earlier this year of Bob Geldof's two-part documentary about WB Yeats, A Fanatic Heart, which was made for RTÉ by Peninsula Television with finance from the BBC.

RTÉ's acting managing director of television Dermot Horan told the Mediacon conference in September that the Geldof series "couldn't have been made" without the BBC's support.