France: Physical video sales down 16%
February 20, 2019
From Pascale Paoli Lebailly in Paris
Following a 9.8 per cent decrease in 2017, the physical video market in France fell again by 16.4 percent in 2018, to reach a global turnover of €448.61 million.
According to figures published by the CNC and GfK, the DVD market declined by 17.9 per cent to €323.35 million while the Blu-ray segment slid by 12.3 per cent to € 125.27 million, but its market share increased by 1.3 per cent to 27.9 per cent of the revenues.
Sales show that 64.22 million units (53.2 million DVD, 11.02 million Blu-ray) were bought last year, which is a 11.2 percent decrease over one year.
Registering a 64.3 per cent share, cinema still dominates the movie market, but revenues fell by 15.1 per cent to € 288.45 million. US films are the most impacted, as their revenues lost 18.5 per cent over one year to €181.19 million versus a 12 per cent decrease for French films.
French TV drama production achieved a better year than the US TV series, as revenues went up 9.9 per cent on the previous year to € 17 million, while US content declined 21.6 per cent to €57.53 million, losing 5.5 per cent in market share.