DVD sales in France have been falling sharply starting three years ago, losing 35% of their value. The latest figures from the French video publishers’ association SEVN reveal that 128.3 million discs were sold between July 2007 and July 2008, a 5.2% drop over the previous 12-month period. Revenues fell 10% to €1.45bn.

The reasons for this bad performance is the high level of piracy, according to Philippe Bastard de Crisnay, SEVN President. “Every day, the number of illegal film downloads is equivalent to the number of cinema tickets sold, a sport where the French are champions,” he laments in an interview with Le Monde.

Jean-Yves Mirski, SEVN Secretary General, points the finger to the out-of-touch chronologies des media legislation that currently imposes a long window between theatrical exhibition and DVD release – six months, Europe’s longest. It means that Warner’s latest Harry Potter, for example, could not be released on DVD before January 2008, thus missing the all-important Christmas period, complains Bastard de Crisnay, also Warner Home Video vice president, “an economic absurdity which cost us 20% of sales.”

The legislation being drafted against illegal Internet downloading is behind schedule which impacts on the growth of video-on-demand, confidentially reported at 3% at best for 2008. Inroads of the Blu-ray format is slow, too.

The silver lining is the fall in the market share of budget DVDs. Sales of DVDs below €3 accounted for only 0.7% of turnover in the first quarter of 2008 and 5.4% in unit volume – the 2007 figure was 8.2%. The average price of new titles has stabilised at €19.31.

Specialist independent publishers with cinephile products appear to resist better to the market downturn. Editions Montparnasse, which celebrates its 20th anniversary, is shipping 1 million DVD a year. Arthouse title publisher Carlotta is one of the first indies to go Blu-ray with Fellini’s Casanova and Jean-Luc Godard’s Sympathy for the Devil.

The industry is waiting for the French cinema phenomenon, Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, the biggest box-office success of all times. Despite the 600,000 illegal downloads in August, Pathé on 29 October will flood the market with 2.5 million DVDs (priced at €19.99), 500,000 more than for Les Choristes, another domestic blockbuster. The film will be released on Blu-ray as well with five hours of bonus material, priced at €29.99. Of note, Pathé will also produce 20,000 VHS copies at €14.99.

Story filed 20.10.08