France: Content sales see significant fall
September 8, 2026

From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris



French TV content sales saw a significant 21.6 per cent decrease in 2025 to a total of €164.3 million, compared to 2024 high of €209.6 million.

The export of French audiovisual content slowing down has been attributed to a “strained economic environment” and “challenging international market conditions”, in a joint study from public government agency CNC and export association Unifrance.


French drama remained the lading TV genre sold abroad in 2025, achieving €54.9 million in sales, ahead of documentary (€43.1 million, down 2.7 per cent compared to 2024) and animation content (€32.2 million, down 30 per cent).

Geographically, Western Europe remained the leading market for French content, representing 46.7 per cent of global revenues, well ahead of North America (11.5 per cent).

The total export value comprising of sales, pre-sales and co-productions, stood at €282.7 million – a 28.1 per cent decline from the record figure of €393 million in 2024. The drop is even more pronounced for pre-financing, with pre-sales down 59.3 per cent YoY to €30.7 million.

“The public and private broadcasters have scaled back their financial commitments, buyers focus now on sure bets while the rationalisation of investments by VoD services is giving a priority to commissions into local programmes,” explained Cécile Lacoue, CNC Head of studies and statistics, at the presentation of the annual figures during Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre.

Lacoue also stressed out that in terms of rights categories, “free ad-supported streaming TV has accounted for 14.3 per cent of the total TV sales”, a sharp increase from 2024. “This rise of AVoD isn’t enough to offset the decline in revenue from SVoD platforms” Lacoué added.

The share of non-linear rights has consequently fallen to 34.8 per cent in revenue last year (40.9 per cent in 2024) while TV rights continue to generate the majority of export revenues (54.4 per cent).

Still, as another Unifrance’s report shows, France retained last year its third-place ranking behind the US and the UK, in terms of global content broadcast on linear channels. It also ranked seventh for releases on VoD platforms, behind English-speaking countries and Asia.