Report: European works 51% of all content broadcast in EU
February 4, 2025
A new report, Works on television in Europe 2023 data, has been published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. This report provides an analysis of films and TV content broadcast in 2023 by a sample of 1,663 European TV channels from 25 European Union countries, i.e. 436 000 single broadcasts.
The report reveals that over 138 000 different works (all origins) were broadcast in the EU in 2023 (works considered : films and made-for-TV works excluding sports, news, games, talk shows, reality shows, music, education, religion. For TV series: 1 season=1 work). This figure includes over 88,000 different European works. On average, over 12,000 different works (including almost 6,500 European works) were broadcast in a given country.
Further key findings include:
- European works accounted for 51 per cent of all works broadcast in the EU in 2023, surpassing US works (40 per cent).
(This report does not intend to measure the quotas foreseen in the AVMS directive. In particular it focuses on the number of films or TV show seasons and not duration). Regarding European works, EU27 works accounted for 75 per cent and other European works (mainly originating from the UK) made up 25 per cent. - A higher share of European works for unitary documentaries, a lower share for films.
The share of EU27 works was generally higher for documentaries than for fiction works and, among documentaries, the share was higher for unitaries than for series. Among fiction works, the share of EU27 works was higher for series than for films. Documentaries tended to be primarily national works, while the majority of films were EU27 non-national. - In most countries, European non-national works prove to be key to the share of European works.
Generally speaking, high-production countries (France, Germany, Poland, Italy) had a higher-than-average share of European works, and of national works among European works, but Spain was an exception. Other smaller production countries such as Austria, Finland and Sweden also achieved a higher-than-average proportion of European works. In most other countries, European non-national works were key to the proportion of European works, whatever this level was. - A higher share of European works on public TV channels.
The share was also higher for TV channels with an audience share of 1 per cent or more. - European co-productions circulated significantly better than 100 per cent national works.
All types of works included, a European co-production was broadcast on TV in 2.8 countries vs. 1.4 for a 100 per cent national work. - The exports of European works in the European Union are led by three countries: UK, France and Germany.
The UK is by far the primary exporter of European documentary and fiction series; France leads films exports and Germany unitary documentaries exports. - The top 20 of the most exported works mostly includes theatrical films.
Nine out of the top 20 most exported films were directed or produced by Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp. 12 of the 20 most exported EU27 TV fiction series were children animated TV series, of which 11 had France as the main production country. 15 of the 20 most exported EU27 documentaries were historical documentaries.
