Europe's animation industry grows: television output stable while features struggle for distribution.(Profile)

Europe's animation industry has often existed in the shadow of the United States and Japan, but is perhaps stronger now than ever before. While US and Japanese animation still enjoys a high profile on cinema and TV screens, European producers have increased their output and dramatically increased their share of the market over the last 15-20 years. One token of this increasingly effective industry is the large number of European TV series sold to the US market.

It is doubtful that the industry would be in its current state of health without the support of various government initiatives at national and European level.

France, which has by some distance the most prolific animation industry in Europe, also has the most comprehensive support structure. Most French broadcasters have commitments to invest a percentage of their annual turnover agreed with the regulator, the Conseil superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA). Public broadcaster France Televisions has made additional agreements over its output of the genre with the animation producers' body the SPFA. Cable and satellite channels have also been required since 2003 to agree minimum investments in French animation with the CSA. These range from 10 per cent of the previous year's turnover for the Disney Channel to 16 per cent for Teletoon.

The national film body the Centre National de la Cinematographie (CNC), which is financed by a tax on cinema admissions and on the advertising revenue of broadcasters, allocates financial support to animation producers. The Compte de soutien a l'industrie de programmes (COSIP) enables producers to access an account that they can use to fund development and production of new projects. Producers with no track record of animation production can also apply for support which is defined as 'selective'. COSIP channelled 24.7m [euro] into French animation in 2005.

The credit d'impot (tax shelter) scheme was introduced in 2003 as a further support for the French film industry and was extended to television in 2005. The scheme has been instrumental in 'repatriating' animation production work to France. Because animation--particularly traditional cel animation--is highly labour-intensive, a large part of the work has historically been subcontracted to countries where labour costs are lower, especially in Asia. The credit d'impot, combined with increasing use of digital techniques in the production process, means that less animation is now being subcontracted outside Europe.

No other European country has the same system of production loans and broadcasting quotas. All European broadcasters are subject to the EU's Television Without Frontiers directive, which requires them to schedule a majority of European content. However, this applies to the overall schedule rather than specific genres like animation.

Other broadcasters which commit to broadcasting minimum amounts of children's programming--such as Rai in Italy and public broadcasters in Germany and the UK--do not have any requirements for this to be animation.

The regional film funds in Germany offer financial support to development and production of animation (just under 9m [euro] in 2005), and there is some funding in Spain's autonomous regions, but animation producers in Italy and the UK have to get by with no public subsidies or loans (although the Welsh Assembly has created a media fund which local animation producers can tap into).

Support for feature film production, which is both considerably more expensive and also perhaps enjoys a higher level of perceived cultural status than TV programming, is more widespread. National film funds and tax break schemes can be drawn on by film producers in all five of the major European territories.

TELEVISION ANIMATION OUTPUT

The CNC publishes a detailed analysis of the French animation industry every year. This shows the volume of animation produced, the value and the breakdown of investment. No other country publishes similar figures on a regular basis, so Screen Digest collected this information from producers themselves, broadcasters and other sources.

According to the CNC, there were 268 hours of television animation produced in 2005, broadly in line with the average over three years. France therefore accounts for just under half (45 per cent) of all the animation produced in the five major European territories. The UK was the next most prolific country, with an average of 101 hours of animation produced over the past three years.

After the UK, Italy was the most productive territory, with an average of 86 hours produced over three years. Spain produced more than the UK and Italy in 2005 but over the three years, its production averaged out at 83 hours. Germany was the least productive of the big five countries, with an average over three years of 61 hours.

In the 1999 report Animation: the Challenge for …