CSA reveals content breakdown on French FTA channels

French media regulator the CSA has published the results of a study of content on the country’s free-to-air channels for 2011.

On the 16 channels studied, the CSA found that fiction accounted for 22.5% of programming in 2011, while factual and magazine programmes accounted for 18.3%, entertainment, music and live events together accounted for 16.6% and news for 16%. Animation programmes accounted for 8.4% of the overall pie, while movies accounted for 2.7% and sport for 1.2%. Other programmes made up the remaining 14.3%.

Fiction, animation, entertainment, music and live events dropped slightly as a proportion year-on-year, while news and factual programming grew.

Public channels France 2 and France 3 accounted for 48% of news and magazine programming, followed by TF1 with 11%. Fiction was present across the range of channels, with four – NRJ12, NT1, TMC and France 4 – accounting for 51% of the total. France 3 remained the leading free-to-air distributor of movies, with the overall free-to-air movie offering declining year-on-year. Only France 4 devoted a majority of its airtime to fiction other than animation – 56.2% of the channel’s airtime was devoted to fiction.

The study covered France Télévisions channels France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô, and commercial channels TF1, M6, Direct 8, TMC, NT1, NRJ 12, W9, Direct Star, Gulli, i>Télé and BFM.