Export : French fiction rebounds in 2021, international pre-financing boosts the whole

The phenomenon series HPI with Audrey Fleurot will have an American remake, its international distributor Newen Connect (TF1 group) announced an agreement to this effect with ABC Signature, subsidiary of Disney Television Studio, for an adaptation intended for no less than the American network ABC. A pilot will be developed and produced by writer and producer Drew Goddard (who notably created Daredevil for Netflix). Audience champion in all categories in France, HPI had already started a strong international career, sold in 105 territories including, and Europe, Antenna 3 in Spain, Rai 1 in Italy, on NDR in Germany, thus contributing to the good performance of French fiction internationally last year.

Early September, Unifrance and the CNC had communicated rising sales figures for French fiction, alongside declines for those in animation and documentaries, more than offset by a strong development of international prefinancing, which allowed the export of French programs to reach its highest level at €375.9 million.

International pre-financing is at its best, with contributions from international co-productions increasing by 10,2% at €88.4 million, their highest level since 2003, while pre-sales jump 30,5% to €101.5M. Parmi les programmes ayant bénéficié de préfinancements internationaux importants, la série de l’Alliance européenne adaptée de Guillaume Musso, The Girl and the Night qui regroupe France Télévisions, la Rai et ZDF. Mais lors de la publication des chiffres de la production 2021 du CNC, celui-ci semblait indiquer qu’il y avait un mouvement plus général dans la fiction, le nombre d’heures bénéficiant d’un financement étranger ayant augmenté de 40% at 697 hours, more than half of the total. L’animation a par ailleurs bénéficié d’une forte année en volume de production, what, le genre étant totalement international, a tiré avec à la hausse les apports étrangers.

Les ventes de programmes finis sont en retrait de 5,5% at 186 M€ compared to the previous year. The fiction that, after a peak in 2017, had shown a decline in 2018 then stagnated, finally bounces back, showing an increase in 21,8 % at 57,3 M€. The genre is thus hot on the heels of the usual sales champion, animation, in retreat from 18,5 % at 60,8 M€, falling below the level of the last five years. For their part, documentary sales fall by 20,1 %, at 36,8 M€, particularly due to delivery delays linked to Covid.

The sale of world rights (particularly on platforms) are stable at €41M, the first beneficiary genre being animation, pour 52 % (a little behind compared to 2020) , followed by fiction 19 % (rising) then from the documentary to 17 % (also increasing).  Sales to AVoD platforms (free with advertising) are growing, elles représentent 18,3 % des ventes de droits monde en 2021 versus 12,0 % in 2020.