“It’s as if a company were closing”, worries Catherine Lecoq, actress of the television series More beautiful life, which after eighteen years of filming in Marseille could disappear to the chagrin of the teams and fans of the adventures of the Mistral district. “I have goosebumps for them”, is moved Marie Barbera, 52, “200% fan” who came from Aix-en-Provence to the Canneseries festival to get an autograph from her “darling”, Anne Décis, and three of his comrades (Nicolas Berger-Vachon, Marwan Berreni and Léa François) playing the autograph game on Saturday.
“I won’t know what to do at 8:20 p.m.,” says Christine, 63, in a queue of several dozen people. Broadcast since August 2004, PBLVwhose audiences are down – more than three million viewers on average in 2021 compared to double some evenings in 2008 – could be removed from the grids of France3 with the end of the contract on December 31 which unites the producer Newen and France Télévisions.
About 600 jobs per year
An uncertain future which worries the film crews of this series recorded at a frantic pace in the studios of the Belle-de-Mai district, near the Marseille station, which are entirely devoted to it. Around 600 jobs a year depend on it: “300 artists and 300 technicians, including many intermittent performers”, estimates Catherine Lecoq, regional delegate of the Professional Union of Artists-CGT, occasional actress in the series, based in Marseille.
” PBLV, it’s a stable, long-lasting job, which has made the good days of the technicians installed in the region”, she adds, fearing that the series will be replaced by a game much cheaper to produce. Filming also generates indirect economic benefits in the hotel and catering industry, with in particular an estimate of 1,000 overnight stays reserved per year for the needs of the series, according to the Tourist Office.
“Discussions are continuing”
But beyond that, the success acquired by the series, after a timid start, throughout France has allowed the city of Marseille to gain new notoriety, even if it is difficult to quantify.
Interviewed by the newspaper The Parisian on the future of the series, Delphine Ernotte, president of France Télévisions, indicated that “the discussions are continuing”, without further details, in an interview published on Saturday evening. But, in the event of a stoppage, the series, a “brand” with “big potential”, “will undoubtedly arouse strong interest from the entire market”, from platforms to the TF1 group – of which Newen is a subsidiary -, has estimated its director of antennas, Xavier Gandon, with the Puremedias site.