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The Inflow of American Television Fiction on European Broadcasting 47

Total programming time vs fiction programming time

In the reports of the European Commission the share of European programmes
is worked out with regard to the total broadcasting time, with exclusion of only
a few programme categories such as news reports and sports and logically
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advertising and teletext. Documentaries, but also talk shows, quizzes and
shows are included. These programmes allow the channels to produce cheap,
one-off domestic productions (the so-called ‘quota quickies’) and to attain the
European quota. Often these programmes are no more than copies of American
programmes, the formats of which are filled in accordance with the national
culture (e.g. Wheel of Fortune, Venture).
In our study we have shown that the European production and programming
of fiction on the various European channels present a more pessimistic picture.
For the European Commission fiction is only one of the categories on which the
quotas are calculated. However, it is the largest single programme category
(about a third of transmission time), one of the most popular and consequently
crucial in the development of the European audiovisual industry. Of all fiction
examined, 63.4 percent is of American origin. Figures over a longer period show
that the share of American fiction, instead of decreasing or stabilizing, has even
risen slightly (see Tables 4.4 and 4.6; see also the figures for 1994–7 in the
European Audiovisual Observatory, 1999: 186).

National vs non-national European fiction

Furthermore, the weak spot of the European audiovisual sector is the
distribution of films and television programmes across the national borders.
Whereas the American productions find a ready reception worldwide, European
productions remain in the first place ‘national productions’. The European
Commission has calculated that 80 percent of the films made in the EU never
leave the country of origin. The same goes for television programmes (De Bens
et al., 1992: 95). Our research has shown that the inflow of American films and
series in the 1990s has not been stopped at all, whereas the ‘internal European’
circulation of fiction remains stagnant. Prime-time is showing a bipolarization
of national fiction on the one hand and US fiction on the other. European
co-productions do not contribute to an increase of the European share but
replace the single-country productions.
With regard to the internal European distribution of fiction, language and
cultural proximity still play an important role. This is especially true for the large
language groups (such as English, French, German) and to a lesser degree for the
smaller language groups (such as Dutch, Italian). As a consequence, the fiction
content on channels in small language communities is more diversified than the
fiction content on channels in large language communities. Great Britain is a good
example. Series on British channels are either British or American or Australian.
Co-productions are almost exclusively concluded with English-speaking (and