Mathieu Bijot, Executive Director, TV France International

Television France International (TVFI) is a non-profit organisation, financed partly by the industry and partly by the government. It helps promote France’s audio-visual content for export. This umbrella organisation represents producers of drama, mini series, animation, documentaries of different kinds – arts, culture, national history, current affairs, and feature films.

TVFI’s team of 12 permanent staff helps organise 50 events in different parts of the world each year, and its annual show Rendezvous in France. Besides, TVFI’s website www.tvfrance-int.com details its members’ roster of 18,000 programmes. It maintains a database of over 13,000 officials in 300 companies worldwide. It constantly updates members with programme buying trends, license rules and regulations from different parts of the world. Besides, the French government’s consulates act as an extension to promote French content overseas. Despite competitive agendas, TVFI’s members come together at TVFI-organised events like the Rendezvous to sell their content in the international market. Anurag Batra, editor-in-chief, exchange4media met with TVFI’s Executive Director, Mathieu Bijot, in St. Tropez, France, recently. Excerpts of the interview:

Q. What is your mandate?

Our mandate is clear. We have to find buyers and give easy access to French production.

Q. Why do you organise Rendezvous?

The idea is to develop a ‘family mentality’ between buyers and sellers of French audio-visual content. We had 180 buyers this year’s Rendezvous. We are not looking at masses. The four-day event is open to invitees only. It’s not a market where everyone can register. We select people whom we want to get here so that we can do business with them. Time is of the essence – for both the buyer and the seller. Normally, at market shows, people have no time to screen programmes. That’s paradoxical in this industry. So, this year, we decided to digitise audio-visual content. No more tapes. We had 100 different monitors for screening different types of programmes. They could be screened at their leisure. You could watch the entire programme or sample it for a couple of minutes.

Q. Which country showed special interest in French content at Rendezvous this year?

We had a strong delegation from the UK, Germany and the Middle East. When we started 10 years ago, Europe was our main buyer. Gradually, with our visits to different countries, interest is growing worldwide.

Q. Is there any interest from Asia?

There is some co-production with Asian countries, especially Korea, China and India. But what is outsourced is not significant at the moment. China is growing very fast for us. It’s still a very difficult market, especially its rules and regulations. But we are selling more and more there, with prices slowly on the increase. They want dramas, documentaries, and some kids’ programmes. That’s a fairly diversified portfolio requirement. We just have to adapt. We sell through intermediates and distributors. It’s very difficult to sell to broadcasters directly.

Q. How about India?

We did work with the French Embassy in New Delhi to facilitate the visit of a few French companies. They were there at the FICCI 2002 meet held in March that year. They toured India and met several vendors to see what kind of collaboration could be worked out. Before that, we passed on very useful information about Indian companies to French animation houses. It’s a slow process. People have to meet, see who does what, and make sure they want to work together. Distance, language barrier, etc., need to be resolved. You can’t do it right away. You need to get to know people. So far, one French company has a strong alliance with Mumbai-based Crest Communications.

Q. What are the programming trends in Europe?

I think local production is on the increase everywhere. American drama is gradually being replaced by local drama. So, that’s a major shift. Last year, of the 100 top-rated programmes, 60 were local drama on prime time. The rest were news and sports. This is true across Europe. Daytime is a different story. In terms of exports, animation is No. 1, factual documentary is No. 2, and drama is No. 3.

Q. In what form is French audio-visual content exported?

It depends on the programmes and how much money people are prepared to put into it. Some countries want it to be subtitled, because they want to hear the original voice. Other countries want it dubbed. Obviously, children’s programmes have to be dubbed.

Q. How do TVFI members get funding?

TVFI members have two main funding sources. One is from key European markets – Germany and the UK. The other is from North America, which accounts for half the investment with Canada as a very, very strong partner in animation and fiction. We have special treaties with Canada. The minimum budgets coming from French sources should be 30 per cent. Below that, it’s not considered a French production. But with Franco-Canadian co-productions, the minimum requirement has been reduced to 20 per cent. So, we are encouraged to work with Canada. Canada is definitely our number one partner.

Q. How do you co-produce French programmes?

Co-production is so much like a wedding. We need to share the vision, have the same goals, the same way of working together. It’s much more than selling programmes. It’s a slow process. People have to meet, see who does what, and make sure they want to work together. We begin with outsourcing, but soon the relationship grows.

Q. How has TVFI grown in the past 10 years?

It began in 1994 with 43 companies. There are 163 companies now. There are more and more French TV and film companies selling internationally. Exports have also doubled in these 10 years. There has been growth of sales in finished programmes, pre-sales, financing of French co-productions. As programmes are becoming more and more difficult to finance, co-productions are on the rise in the domestic market, especially ambitious programmes.

Q. How has the market changed?

Ten years back most clients were terrestrial broadcasters. Today we have cable, satellite, specialty channels, in-flight programming and DVD. In airports and in shops, you have screens showing programmes. The number of distribution outlets is also growing exponentially.

Q. What about your future plans?

We are trying to encourage new measures for export. Since we are partly supported by the ministry and the government, there are different forms of help available. We are looking at different ways to make French audio-visual companies more aggressive, attempting more commercial activities of our companies in international markets, and persuading French productions to be more internationally acceptable by producing more series of documentaries, not stand-alone documentaries because they are much more difficult to sell.

In animation, one of the key areas to expand growth margins is merchandising. We went to New York to attend the New York Licensing Show to understand merchandising early this year. Although these economic models are not defined yet, they are not big money makers. But with the industry changing, we see TV as one outlet among others.

Q. Finally, what is unique about TVFI?

We are unique as we represent the whole industry – private and public organisations, small and big companies, broadcasters, producers and distributors. We represent 85 per cent of all audio-visual French exports. We are facilitators, but when negotiations begin, we step back. Our role is to keep up with new technologies, to take into account emerging markets geographically and in terms of media, and make sure we contact the right people. No other country in the world has this kind of an organisation for producers of fiction, non-fiction, animation and distributors.