Eu-u.s. Showbiz Trade Gap Grows

The deficit of European Union countries engaged in film and TV trade with North America reached $8.2 billion in 2000, an increase of 14% over the previous year, according to the latest estimated figures released Tuesday by data agency European Audiovisual Observatory.

The trade imbalance, according to EAO, is largely because of the growth in receipts from the sale of television rights by the U.S. major studios, which grew by 20%, rising to $2.6 billion from $2.1 billion.

At the same time, TV rights receipts of independent distributors, as represented by the sales by members of AFMA, diminished by 5.7% to $784 million from $831 million between 1999-2000. The cumulative receipts of the majors and the independents combined have increased by 15.9% to $4.4 billion from $3.8 billion.

Information available on European film and TV exports to North America came to an estimated $827 million in 2000, against $853 million in 1999, a decline of 3%. But EAO pointed out that it is difficult to come up with precise export figures for the Euro companies because common collection methods are not available, except perhaps for Germany, France and the United Kingdom. U.K. companies took the lion's share, with $691 million in 2000, compared with $705 million in 1999 (-2%), according to EAO. Exports, including co-production receipts of French TV producers, increased by 9.6%, while the sales by French exporters of film "fell off very considerably in 2000."

Data for the study were collected from various sources, according to the EAO's Web site, including the MPA for the Hollywood majors and AFMA for independent distributors.

The growth in North American TV receipts contrasts with the decline in the broadcast of U.S. fiction shows by 101 Western European television networks. Stats on European broadcasting, published by the EAO and compiled each year by Britain's Essential Television Statistics, show that the transmission of U.S. programming, which totaled 222,884 hours in 1999, fell to 213,928 in 2000, its lowest level since 1994.

Meanwhile, receipts of American distributors from European cinema owners increased less significantly, according to the report.

Receipts rose 1.7% to $1.75 billion in 2000 from $1.7 billion the previous year. The majors' receipts fell by 2.4%, while those of independents rose by 13%.

According to the report, the weak growth of U.S. receipts is "somewhat curious" because, according to EAO estimates, gross European theatrical receipts rose 5.9% between 1999 and 2000. The market share of American films rose to 73.7% in 2000 from 69.3% in 1999.

The EAO pointed to a growth in the majors' use of European national distributors as a possible explanation for the difference between the considerable growth in gross boxoffice revenue and the weak growth in net rentals.

The difference, said the EAO, also could be because of the weakness of European currencies against the dollar.