Brussels, 19/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Audiovisual Observatory has published the latest figures on national television fiction broadcasting in the 5 biggest countries of the EU (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) revealing that the supply of first-run domestric drama on unencrypted television channels increased slightly in 2004 on the previous year, with a total of 5513 hours broadcast by the 5 countries, a modest rise of 133 hours (+2.5%) on 2003. Production volume grew in Germany, the UK and Italy, but fell in France and Spain. German soaps, launched for the first time in 2004 by ZDF, boosted the fiction production of the strongest TV industry in Europe. Even more remarkable is the growth of Italian domestic drama, allowing quantity indicators to increase. Both Italy and Spain, almost starting from scratch, were the most dynamic TV industries in the late 90s, but things have changed. Italy has managed to keep growing, while Spain has seen a fall in drama commissioned by public channels. Eurofiction notes that in general, private TV broadcasting is on the rise, while public broadcasting has slightly declined.