13/04/2007

While MIPTV, the leading international market for audiovisual and digital content, opens its doors on Monday in Cannes, a five-day event expected to be attended by over 12,000 film industry representatives including 4,000 buyers, yesterday the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) published its annual report on support for audiovisual production.

The report shows a 4.5% increase in the number of films produced in 2006 and an 11% rise in funding, at €1.3bn. On the whole, French television production experienced positive growth and was better financed in 2006. Last year also confirmed the increased importance of domestic production, with a 40% fall in foreign feature production since 2004, while funding for French-made animated films shot up 69%.

As regards TV fiction (835 hours in 2006) – whose increasing domination on French television in terms of air time and audience figures is cause for serious concern among film industry professionals – a sweeping change is underway.

Formats of 52 and 26 minutes, which are more attractive for export, are gaining in popularity and represented 53.5% of fictional television programmes produced in 2006, compared to only 31% in 2004. This change is having a profound impact on the work of scriptwriters and directors. The traditional 90-minute programmes have recorded a net decrease, with series production down 35%. Single programmes, however, continue to do well.

While television documentary production remained unchanged (2,000 hours in 2006) despite increases in funding, in particular from Canal+, as well as ARTE and France 3, animation finished top of the class (419 hours produced in 2006 compared to 268 in 2005) and set a new record.

Notwithstanding a strong dependence on international financing, the TV animation sector has managed to create strong value added careers in the branch, which will no doubt prove strategic for the future of the industry.

(Translated from French)