10/09/2003

There’s been a net drop in the foreign sales of French audiovisual programmes. Programme sales abroad dropped by 16% in 2002, according to the annual report published yesterday by TVFrance International (TVFI) and The National Audiovisual Institute, in association with the National Film Centre - CNC. Last year, French companies sold €106.1m worth of programmes abroad.

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This is the first time that the figures have shown a drop since the study of this market was started in 1994. The main areas believed to have led to this recession in exports are the animation sector and a drop in orders from the German market. But also co-productions and pre-sales have shown a reduction, with earnings falling from €208.5m to €123.8m.
In general, animation is the easiest product for the French to sell abroad, (€45m) and this sector has seen a 20% drop in exports; sales of drama are stable at €22.9m, while documentaries (€23.5m) have taken over the volume of co-productions.

These figures will no doubt be discussed at the "Rendez-vous" de TVFI meeting (September 8-12). 170 buyers from around the world and 50 French companies have already gathered on the French Côte d'Azure for the event.

(Translated from French)