The Ministry of Culture's budget for 2007 was €3.2 billion. The financing of cultural activities costs some €12.6 billion, half provided by the State and half by local authorities. On average, households spend €1,385 a year on culture, leisure activities, sports and games.

Books

In 2006, 65,298 books were published including 33,460 new titles and 31,738 reprints, totalizing 512 billion books.

396 million copies were sold by 277 publishing houses.

Publisher's annual net sales (2006): €2.9 billion

Newspapers

27% of the French read a daily newspaper every day.

There are 10 national newspapers and 109 regional papers (dailies and weeklies).

Total annual circulation: 4.7 billion

Periodicals

Among the top 100, eight have a circulation of over one million and ten over 500,000 copies.

With 460 copies sold for every 1,000 residents, France ranks first in the world for magazine readership.

Television

Watching television remains the favourite leisure activity of the French, with an average of 3 hours 24 minutes per person per day.

There are several hundred television channels.

  Five national public channels: France 2, France 3, France 4, France 5 (educational channel) and France O (first multicultural French channel)

  Arte (Franco-German cultural channel)

  France 24: French global information channel with non-stop coverage in France, English and Arabic.

  Three national private channels: TF1, M6 and Canal Plus (pay channel with 5.14 million subscribers in France and 6.8 million abroad)

  Several tens of channels are available on the cable, ADSL and digital terrestrial televation (DTT) networks. 6 million households had access to DTT channels at the end of 2006 and 5 million to the cable network and ADSL packages.

  Multichannel satellite packages (Canal Satellite, TPS)

  TV5 MONDE and Canal France International (CFI) are the two operators of France's external radio and television network

  www.tv5.org
  www.france24.com

Radio

Radio France is the umbrella company for the country's public service radio stations: France Inter, France Info (24-hour news), France Culture, France Musique, France Bleu, FIP (France Inter Paris) and Le Mouv' (for young listeners)

The private sector is represented by the general interests stations RTL (France's most popular radio station), Europe 1 and Radio Monte Carlo (RMC) and a host of music, specialist, community and regional stations broadcasting on FM. Radio France Internationale (RFI - 44 million listeners worldwide), Monte Carlo Doualiya, aimed at the Middle East and Medi 1 aimed at Maghreb countries, form France's overseas radio broadcasting network.

www.radiofrance.fr(in French)
www.rfi.fr(in French)

Information Technology and multimedia

While computers are considered primarily as a tool for work and are used as such by 80% of the French, an increasing proportion, currently 55% of French households now have one (46% have Internet access, 80% of which with high-speed ADSL Internet access).

The French have rapidly taken to the Internet, the new form of access to knowledge, with over 20 million users at school, work or home.

Internet use in France has grown swiftly and remarkably in a few years: every institution, daily newspaper, government department and business now has its own website and there are sites of all kinds (sport, education, services, films, etc.)

The most visited sites are portal sites, ISP websites (such as France Telecom's Orange) and service sites.

Cinema

France, which invented the cinematography in 1895, is still very active in this sector. 203 films were produced in 2006, making France second in the world for film investment.

62.5% of the French population goes to the cinema at least once a year, and 33% at least once a month. With a network of 5,366 cinemas (140 of which are of multiplex type) France is among the countries with teh densest cinema coverage.

www.cnc.fr (in French)

Music and dance

France is home to some 28,841 dramatic artists & dancers, 30,415 musicians & singers, 285 music, opera and dance festivals and 7,078 variety performers.

In addition, amateur performers are increasing in number as the teaching of music and dance has grown apace (more than 5,108 institutions specialize in music alone).

Theatre

Every year, some 33,300 performance put on by the national theatres, national drama centres, other subsidized playhouses and private theatres attract a total audience of 7.5 million. In addition to the great theatres in Paris, its suburbs, in smaller cities and at world-renowned festivals such as Avignon, over a thousand independent theatre companies have sprung up.

Museums and monuments

Some 1,200 museums attract more than 41 million visitors each year.

The Louvre, the Chateau de Versailles and the Orsay Museum alone welcome nearly 16 million people annually. Most provincial cities have at least one museum.

In addition, more than 2,400 historic buildings are open to the public and attract 7 million visitors a year. the Eiffel Tower being the most popular attraction with 6.7 million visitors a year. Moreover, some 42,300 buildings are classified as historic monuments and as such are protected by the Ministry of Culture

www.culture.gouv.fr (in French)

Sport

Participation in sporting activities has grown rapidly in recent years.

Almost 16 million people are enrolled in sports federations, with football and tennis the largest. Judo, pétanquem horse-riding, badminton and golf have enjoyed notable success in recent years.

In addition, adventure and discovery activities such as mountain biking, hiking, climbing, hang-gliding and canoeing are winning increasing numbers of followers.

www.jeunesse-sports.gouv.fr (in French)

Cultural Festivals

Internet Festival, Music Festival, Heritage Days, the literature festival Lire en Fête, and Science Week are all cultural and leisure events in which the French love to take part, and whose success is growing every year:

  during the Heritage days, historic buildings (ministries, embassies, firms, banks) usually closed to the public open their doors.

  the aim of the Science Week is to inform the public about developments in science and their implications for society.

  focusing on books and reading Lire en Fête organizes meetings with writers, writers' workshops and short story competitions and introduces visitors to trades withing the book industry.

  finally, the Internet Festival raises public awareness about the information society.

  fine Food Week is a showcase for France's culinary heritage while promoting the adoption of a balanced diet.