Majority of Films Broadcast on TV in Europe Come from U.S.

Films produced in Europe made up 28 percent of movies broadcast by a sample of European TV channels during the 2015-16 season, according to a new study from the European Audiovisual Observatory.

The report, featuring a sample of 131 TV channels from 18 different EU member countries, finds that 68 percent of the films broadcast on these services originated from the U.S. The breakdown of European films was split at 14 percent between “national” and “European non-national.” The figure drops to 23 percent for the prime-time slot.

The study reveals that public channels tend to broadcast more European films than their private counterparts. Taking a full day on public television, European films accounted for 44 percent of all films broadcast. This figure falls to 24 percent for the private TV channels in the sample. Taking into account the prime-time slot, these figures fall to 39 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

Of the 15,504 film titles broadcast during the 2015-16 season, 47 percent were produced in Europe and 47 percent in the U.S., with the rest of the world making up 6 percent. However, European films did not travel as widely as U.S. ones. European films were broadcast in 1.4 countries in the same year, while U.S. films were broadcast in 3.1 countries in the year studied. The circulation difference explains why European films represented 47 percent of single film titles broadcast while accounting for only 28 percent of cumulated films broadcast.