Since its launch in early 2024, TF1+, the ad-supported streaming service of France’s leading commercial broadcaster TF1, has nearly doubled its content pipeline through aggregation deals and increased its digital ad revenue by approximately 40%.
The service, led by TF1 president and chairman Rodolphe Belmer, recently signed partnerships with French-German network Arte and A&E Television Network, bringing TF1+’s content pipeline from 15,000 hours at launch to 25,000 hours today.
In less than a year, the service has positioned itself as a leading aggregation platform for free streaming in France, where it is now referenced on 95% of French TV sets. Belmer says the platform has an 80% awareness rate in France and is viewed by an average of 33 million French people every month, for an average of 3.5 hours per month.
These deals with third-party publishers such as a “major European broadcaster like Arte and a US-based global player like A&E” will allow TF1+ to “expand its editorial reach beyond quality mass-market programming aimed at families,” the executive said. , who previously led Canal+ Group for almost twelve years and later served on the board of directors of Netflix.
“Arte offers a much more elite range of programmes, and A+E has factual entertainment programs that are more masculine and also very interesting to us,” he says.
TF1+ is attractive to third-party publishers not only because of the platform’s penetration rate, but also because of its revenue sharing model, according to Belmer. “Third-party inventories are not only presented to the end user on TF1+, but the associated advertising inventories are also distributed by TF1’s advertising network. This also allows us to consolidate TF1’s position as a benchmark agency for premium video inventory in France,” explains Belmer.
One of the main objectives behind TF1+ was to tap into the booming digital video advertising market, which Belmer estimates is worth €2 billion. And so far the service has been delivered. At launch, the platform represented about 4% of that market and now accounts for about 7% of it, Belmer said.
Our digital ad sales are up 40% year-on-year and our market share is growing very quickly,” he says. “French advertisers are very interested in the arrival of a huge, premium advertising inventory, which will benefit their brand communications and also provide an alternative to YouTube,” Belmer adds.
Belmer said TF1+ worked with a company that “measured the impact of an ad viewed on TF1+, within a TF1+ program,” and found that it “has a memorable impact approximately 2.5 times greater than that of the same ad viewed on YouTube.”
As it looks to attract more brands, the service has now just launched a new offering powered by technology and data.
“Today we support advertisers in their marketing strategy by providing them with advertising space on television and digital, but in the digital age, marketing is much more complex and brands are implementing increasingly sophisticated strategies aimed at creating touchpoints at every stage of the consumer journey. journey,” says Belmer.
“We have the ambition to profile ourselves as the first platform that guides brands in their entire digital strategy, with world-class solutions. We help brands build awareness and consideration,” he says. “Our new advertising solutions also enable brands to communicate and build loyalty with potential customers, ultimately converting them into consumers. We call it a full funnel marketing strategy.”
TF1, whose flagship show “HPI” is being remade in the US by ABC, will launch its latest premium scripted series, “Cat’s Eyes,” a modern, Paris-set adaptation of the cult ’80s manga, on Mipcom, together with the reboot of the popular singing competition Star Academy.