Roxane Laurent
october 2014
20 p.

In 2011, the cultural industries (audiovisual and multimedia, press and publishing-related activities, advertising agency services) accounted for 2.6% of France’s entire market economy, one of the highest rates in Europe. This proportion is higher than Germany’s 2.1%, but nevertheless remains lower than the UK’s 3.2%.

In France, the audiovisual and multimedia sectors account for the largest proportion of cultural industry activities, unlike Germany and the UK where press and book publishing predominate. Certain French activities such as video games and production and postproduction for motion pictures, video and television account for more than a third of all such European cultural activity. News agencies are on the other hand predominantly English, whilst Germany makes a very considerable contribution to the recorded music, radio and newspaper sectors.

As in all sectors of the market economy, French cultural businesses are less profitable (measured here by their margin rate) than their European counterparts, due to factors of production cost issues. Publishing and advertising agencies show particularly low margin rates. On this basis, video games and film production prove France’s most profitable cultural sectors, whilst in Germany and the UK they are press-related, and in Italy, music.