TF1’s YouTube puzzle
I tracked 17 channels, totalling 12M subs and 6.7B views, here’s what I would fix.
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There’s what bosses say and what teams do. More often than not, the two constituencies aren’t in sync in M&E companies and that’s okay.
TF1’s CEO, Rodolphe Belmer, sees YouTube as TF1’s biggest competitor and he is very vocal about the amalgams being made between YouTube and Broadcasters with the slogan “YouTube is TV”.
In September, during the Festival de la fiction de la Rochelle, he highlighted (on a panel where YouTube was also featured) the CPM difference between TF1+, their streaming service, and YouTube, respectively at 13€ and 5€. I get it, you monetise better on TF1+ than on YouTube so why push content to YouTube. Let me tell you why though: because this is where audiences are (whether you like it or not) and chances are these folks are not watching TF1 on linear, nor using TF1+ or if they are, they are still hungry for more content (otherwise YouTube and social wouldn’t be clocking so many viewing hours) so why not show up (somehow) where they spend their time and bring in additional revenues. Should you put everything on YouTube? Of course not. Should you put the right content on YouTube? Absolutely.
Public positioning only goes so far, teams can’t afford not to figure out how to make YouTube work for them. Hence why TF1 has a portfolio of channels on the platform.
In this edition, we’ll dig into their channel portfolio, key channel metrics, content strategies and my recommendations on things to tweak.
What we won’t do? Debate whether YouTube is TV. Let’s leave theory for a second and get practical.
Disclaimer n°1: It’s a non exhaustive list of the TF1 channel portfolio on YouTube. Why? Given that TF1 doesn’t use the featured channel option on YouTube, I had to rely on channels with the brand TF1 in the name and my knowledge of their IP portfolio. Bless Channel 4 for doing it which enables users to navigate from one channel to the other (and made my job easier in this piece dedicated to UK broadcasters on YouTube).
Disclaimer n°2: YouTube Studio is a data goldmine for channel owners but I can only review the channel performance based on public data and that includes subscriber count, view count and video library size. What actually matters?
CTR + AVD = These two metrics determine whether YouTube promotes your content beyond your initial audience.
Retention Curve = This shows you exactly what to fix in your next video.
Impressions = Confirms whether YouTube is even giving your content a chance.
Traffic Sources = Shows if your optimisation efforts (titles, tags, descriptions) are working.
So what’s in the TF1 portfolio?
Based on my findings, TF1 has deployed a multi-channel strategy with 17 YouTube channels collectively generating:
12.5 million subscribers
6.7 billion views
35,096 videos
Across several 5 distinct content verticals: News, Entertainment/game shows, Kids, Factual, Movies & Series.
Out of the 17 channels studied, 3 IP led and 2 brand led channels grab 82.3% of subscribers and 75.5% of views:
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