French TV Shows ‘Sambre,’ ‘Bardot,’ ‘Marie-Antoinette’ Are Top Non-English Language Exports in 2024

Ben Croll

13 January 2025 at 10:55 am·2-min read

France was the world’s third largest TV producer in the global TV market last year, claiming a 7.3% market share, placed behind the U.S. (with a 65.9% share) and the U.K. (with 9.9%), but was the world’s leading exporter of non-English language content.

According to a study published on Monday ahead of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, 73% of first-runs of foreign works on international TV channels came from France. In terms of buyers, the Czech Republic, Spain, Poland, Italy and Germany accounted for just below 40% of all first-run broadcast sales; both Spain and the Czech Republic proved particularly reliable, offering Gallic fare the most broadcast hours, while the Czechs took more programing than anyone else.

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Overall, nearly 300 French productions were scheduled on free-to-air primetime channels in 2024, with scripted crime offerings proving more durable than ever. In Italy, the TF1-produced “Master Crimes” averaged 1.5 million primetime viewers when broadcast on Rai 1, accounting for a whopping 11% of the share, while the true crime thriller “Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime” broke records at home and barriers abroad when broadcast in the U.K.

Directed by Oscar-winner Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (whose seminal 2004 miniseries “The Staircase” might as well have invented the modern true crime genre), “Sambre: Anatomy of a Crime” broke records in primetime when it aired on public broadcaster France 2 last winter, scoring more than 4 million viewers per episode and earning an average market share of 19%. The limited series then won raves upon its primetime broadcast on BBC Four late last year – marking an impressive and rather uncommon coup for non-English language series.

As the U.S remained a more reliable source for catalog sales than for pre-buys and financing, the American market stayed ripe for remakes and format sales, as indicated by recent launch of ABC/Hulu’s “High Potential.” Meanwhile, across the board popular bio-series like “Bardot” and “Marie-Antoinette” both proved that the past is never dead — especially when each broadcast could take primetime viewers in six countries and nine free-to-air channels to Versailles and St. Tropez.

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