Foreign sales of French television programmes leapt by 13.4% last year to reach $117.2m (Ffr848m), according to a survey commissioned by French exporters' association TV France International.

Including the sales of foreign television programming $25.6m (Ffr185m) and of TV rights to French and foreign feature films $86.8m (Ffr628m) handled by TVFI members, French exports have swelled by 25%, reaching $221.2m (Ffr1.6bn).

Because of the difficulty in assessing TV sales of feature films, the latter figures are only approximate and could have been under-evaluated, which makes feature films the most valuable item on the French exporters' line-ups, followed by animated programming, which represented $41.5m (Ffr300m) in sales in 2000.

Western Europe, which represents two thirds of the sales, remains the main market for French programming, Germany being the chief client.

Foreign participation in the co-production of French television programmes has grown 14.2% (compared to a slide of 12.6% in 1999) to $152m (Ffr1.1bn).