The rapid uptake of computers and other electronic items, the development of multimedia content and services, a surge in online transactions and increasing Internet access in the last decade all meant slightly more European companies were hooked into hi-tech than those in the United States, the report on the ties between multimedia and industry said.

"France is at the heart of this European dynamism," it said, calculating that French companies accounted for 52 percent of European companies turning to the Internet and multimedia strategies, mainly through corporate alliances.

Germany and Britain were the next most active countries, each accounting for around 20 percent of the region's turnaround, followed by the Netherlands, the report said.

"Europe has not only caught up, but it even beats the United States in terms of its alliances in research and development," the authors noted.

Other pioneering activities were: Internet access, multimedia equipment, computer games, multimedia services and interactive television.

France, the report boasted, was heavily involved in all those areas.

"No matter what sector," it added, France alone "always comes second in the world behind the United States."

Games and leisure software stood out in France, with around a quarter of the national companies surveyed being involved in the multi-billion-euro (-dollar) industry. The country is home to three of the top 12 games houses in the world: Infogrames, Ubi Soft and Vivendi Universal Games.

Much of the European strategy borrowed from the US model of trying to cover the "magic triangle" of content, delivery and customers, with a recent trend towards finally making convergence work, the report said.

The collapse of the Internet bubble did give the sector a body blow in 2001, but all sectors -- except games and cable television -- have been making a comeback since 2002, it said.

SPACE.WIRE