Netflix Ditched The Solo Act
Enter TF1
Starting July 2026, Netflix subscribers in France will gain instant access to TF1’s five linear channels and dive into roughly 30,000 hours of TF1+ on-demand programs. I've never seen a global streamer and a major local broadcaster strike a deal of this scale, have you?
I've spent the past few days talking to industry peers and thinking through the deal’s implications. Here’s my take on what's at stake today, who wins tomorrow and how this might reshape the broader industry.
Today at a glance:
The State Of Play
Following The Money Trail
Ads: TF1 Takes Charge, Netflix Becomes Ad-Supported For All
Netflix Gets A Live Boost But Needs A Makeover
Not So Fast On The Sports Rights Bargain
Easy Fulfilment Of Content Quotas
Competitors Feel The Heat
The State Of Play
Together, the pair brings a lot of French people 😁
The last official number released by Netflix themselves is 10M (back in July 2022). This past week, the number of 14M Netflix subscribers has been floating around but I remain cautious as I don’t have the actual data source attached.
TF1 on the other hand has released detail data during its Q1 2025 earnings:
35M monthly active streamers (34% are aged 25-49 years old) on TF1+, with 272M hours streamed in Q1 2025 (half a million year to date).
58M monthly viewers through its broadcast channels.
In their Q1 2025 earnings, TF1 boasts a 53% daily reach versus YouTube and the SVOD category.
Why the need to partner with Netflix then? That’s why 👇