You have surely passed its image recently

You have surely passed its image recently. A bit frightening with his large black Wick on the eyes, its rings in the nose, lips and eyebrows. And yet, you have not seen the tattoos... To admire them, need to go see "Millennium", the film out today in the room, full opening of the Cannes Festival. Lisbeth Salander is frankly Gothic heroine of the book the Swede Stieg Larson and the film that had been fired now. Released in February in Sweden, he was seen by more than 2 million of Scandinavians. The greatest success in the history of the Nordic film.

And an unexpected stroke of luck for the French group Marathon, including Yellow Bird, the small Swedish producer of dark trilogy by Stieg Larson is a very close cousin. They are both part of the new group Zodiak Entertainment, owned by the Italian Publisher De Agostini. It launched in the audio-visual sector through the acquisition of Marathon in 2007, are now the backbone of the group based in Paris. But the film is not the main activity of the company, it was the first time she ventured these lands at risk. In fact, adaptation had been commissioned by Swedish television and was to pass on the small screen. But the enthusiasm of the public for the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his strange companion in decided otherwise.

The true profession of Marathon, as Zodiak and its subsidiaries, it is the television. With an ambition, becoming a major of the small screen, present in all major countries and capable of producing both television films, with soap operas, as documentaries, drawings animated, television, games short all what a string of television needs to operate. And the idea behind that it is possible to industrialize this profession of saltimbanque, fragile financially and the balance of the four major French broadcasters TF1, M6, Canal and France Television (more Arte).

They are called in France independent producers. Understanding independent television channels. Most have less than twenty years of age, because before the liberalization of the small screen, in 1987, with the privatisation of TF1, the bulk of the content of public television was produced internally or by a public company, the SFP. They are now more than a thousand to offer their services to a handful of clients which just expanded with the arrival of DTT.

For mapping, the job of production is divided into France in two worlds that barely talk. The top, the noble, produces only fiction and documentaries. It creates more or less ambitious works, the budget exceed EUR 2 million, WINS little money, but is highly supported by the State, in respect of the cultural exception, and the chains have obligation to work a certain quota of producers. One of down is not helped at all, but is cheaper to manufacture (a few hundreds of thousands of euros emission) and earns more in advertising. These are the games, magazines and other entertainment shows called "flow". But must have solid kidney to keep the pace of a game a week or even per day.

This arsenal of unique in the world with the most liberal (the independent) and the more interventionist (aid and obligations) resulted in a fragmentation of the profession, while in most other countries, the strings primarily produce internally. Result, in France, a thousand companies share market of fiction, or 50 of the global market, and a quarantine only the other half, the stream.

Marathon is part of a few producers who try to combine the two. Because if the fiction is less profitable, commonly 5 margin against 20 for the stream, it has the advantage of being sold several times, in a country and then internationally. And, if the chance to find the good series, the case can become even more lucrative.

This is what happened to Marathon, born in 1990, when its founder Pascal Breton envisioned staging the adventures of three beautiful Tropéziennes shot in the series "under the Sun". It rained so viewers to the one that the drama was released thirteen years, through 480 episodes. And when success is confirmed, it becomes easier to sell abroad, with of course a margin that can reach 80, since all the manufacturing costs are already covered. "Under the Sun", renamed "Saint-Tropez", has been sold in over 100 countries. This success gave him both the financial means to grow its group and method which justifies the race size: finance the production by national chain and earn profits on sales to the international. Of course, this must be initially design a product that would appeal to foreign audiences. Saint Tropez is an easier to sell than Dijon or Carpentras. Result, the international represents 20 of the business of Marathon, but nearly 80 of the profits.

In fifteen years, the Group associate tens of SMEs to create a portfolio of products and skills in all segments of the business. Today, net sales of approximately EUR 180 million is directed 40 by flows, such as "koh lanta" programs, "The great newspaper", "Fort Boyard" (fifteen years of existence), 40 by fiction, mainly of the series, and 20 by cartoons. These are very important, because it is one of the few areas where the French excellent and where they sell widely abroad. The Marathon is "Totally Spies" series, seems, the delights of young Americans.

Diversification of the types, priority recurring programs, to reduce costs, and internationalization of products, is the Marathon recipe claiming the good years, as in 2007 and 2008, a profit margin to two digits. Pooling efforts and play on the effects of scale, it is the only way to reduce hazards in a business where the failure is still far more common than success. The ambition of the Zodiak group is doubling in size in three years, for close to 1 billion euros of turnover.

This very industrial vision of a profession that is often restricted to craft recalls the operation in the cinema of Europa Corp. The society of Luc Besson, who bet she also films international sales to cushion a budget. A way to identify ways to move towards a greater quality (scenario, casting, filming) production, able to compete with the best Americans.

This approach is also a way to pass the crisis. Marathon is willing to adapt to a possible decrease in budget channels due to the advertising crisis. And then also of the future, which is write not necessarily on television but on new media such as Web or video request. There is not every day the chance to encounter on the road a Gothic and talented heroine.