Download “How do European films perform on TV?”

This brand-new report: “How do European films perform on TV?” has just been published by the European Audiovisual Observatory, part of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. This report provides an analysis of films broadcast in 2023 by a sample of 141 European TV channels from 18 European Union countries. The data was provided by Glance.

Key findings include:

• On average, viewing time of films (both theatrical and non-theatrical) accounts for 13% of total television viewing time in the EU. This proportion varies between EU countries, from 7% to 23%.
• European Union films tend to overperform in audience comparing with their actual percentage of the number of films available. European Union films account for 33% of films broadcast on television and 41% of film viewing time. 
• With regards to the number of European Union films broadcast, national films account for the majority of broadcasts, and an even greater percentage of viewing time. In other words, non-national films from European Union are comparatively less successful than national films.
• Apart from European Union films, UK films account for 6% of film broadcasts and 5% of film viewing time, with a much higher share in Sweden and Finland, and especially in Ireland, for obvious linguistic reasons.

Breakdown of film broadcasts and viewing time by region of origin (2023)

Source: European Audiovisual Observatory analysis of Glance data

When only considering theatrical films, European Union films account for only 26% of film viewing time.

Breakdown of film viewing time by region of origin: theatrical vs. non-theatrical
(production year: 1996 or later) (2023)

Source: European Audiovisual Observatory analysis of Glance data

Taking into account both theatrical and non-theatrical films, fiction films account for over 90% of both film broadcasts and film viewing time. European Union documentary films are particularly successful, but European animation films are, on the one hand, underrepresented among animation films of all origins and, on the other hand, their share of viewing time is lower than their share of broadcasts.

Breakdown of film view time by region of origin and by genre (2023)

Source: European Audiovisual Observatory analysis of Glance data