PARIS (AFP) - - 2008 was the year of the one-minute hike in the couch potato syndrome as TV fans around the globe spent more time than ever glued to the box, according to statistics this week from French media ratings agency.

And sport, particularly football, remained the firm TV favourite, followed by fiction, according to data from over 80 territories worldwide.

The "one Television Year I the World" report was released ahead of the opening Monday of the influential five-day MIPTV market in the Riviera town of Cannes.

North America notched up a big increase, with fans watching four minutes more TV a day, taking their total average dose to four hours and 32 minutes -- 272 minutes.

This compared to a two minute increase in Europe to three hours and 37 minutes -- 217 minutes -- despite a three minute decrease in France and a one minute-drop in Germany.

TV fans in Latin America watched one minute more, taking daily TV intake to 182 minutes on average.

Daily viewing in the Asia Pacific region rose by two minutes a day to 158 minutes

But the biggest increase was in the Middle East, where viewers watched 29 minutes more per day to reach 262 minutes.

"TV consumption is quickly changing, as new ways of watching television emerge within an expanding offer of channels," noted Jacques Braun, Vice-president of Eurodata TV worldwide.

Unsurprisingly, in a year that saw both the Beijing Olympics and football's Euro 2008 take place, sport retained its top TV ranking.

Fiction was the second most popular TV genre, followed by entertainment.

US-made fiction continued to woo viewers with show stoppers such as C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation and C.S.I Miami.

And long-running, massively popular TV reality shows such as Big Brother and Survivor continued to score around the world, as did family entertainment formats, including "Strictly Come Dancing" and "Idols".

Russian series "Tatyana's Day and "The Apostle" remained popular in neighbouring countries, as did Colombian smash hit telenovela series "Ugly Betty".

The most unlikely success of 2008, however, was Turkish TV series, "Gumus", which has attracted a big following in the Middle East despite failing to catch on in its native country.

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