Fiction, live, streaming programs… Revenue from private channels to deal with platforms

It is a ridge line on which everyone tries to find their balance. THE private channels, both free and paid, want to seduce viewers both in their on-demand and linear consumption.

Each in their own way and the back-to-school program schedules presented Monday by Canal+ and Wednesday by TF1 illustrate this desire. “We have obviously become a platform, […] but we are above all a media, and it is as a media that we will continue to mark the singularity of Canal with the rest of the environment, free or paid ” thus declared Monday Maxime Saada, president of the management board of the Vivendi subsidiary.

Program schedules

On the side of TF1, the new CEO, Rodolphe Belmer, took advantage of the presentation of the grid to repeat his roadmap : consolidate the status of his group in the linear and also make it the leader in free streaming in France. “A powerful major media is the meeting between a cultural, technological and editorial project”, he recalled.

If technological innovations for the myTF1 streaming platform will be unveiled in the coming weeks, the editorial line must allow the front page to “differentiate itself sustainably” on DTT and to develop online, he insisted.

original fiction

In the french fiction, one of the levers of online consumption, beyond well-established franchises ( HPI, Lycée Toulouse Lautrec, etc.), which will experience new seasons, the new releases also focus on comedy (RIP, Le Nounou, etc.) as well as thrillers and thrillers, with strong incarnations (Nolwenn Leroy, Julien Dore…).

Over the 2023-24 season, TF1 will be able to count on the live broadcast of two major sporting events, the Rugby World Cup in France at the start of the school year and the Euro football tournament next summer. TF1 confirms in ping its main audience machines: daily soap operas, reality shows like The Voice, Koh Lanta and Star Ac, magazines like Quotidien on TMC… Finally, in streaming shows, the front page continues to innovate and launches this season dating and contest formats.

“Whatever the genre – stream, documentary, fiction or reality TV – what makes the difference is the soap opera side” which generates strong audiences both in linear and in streaming, underlines for his part Guillaume Charles, head of antennas and group content M6, which presents its grid on July 5th.

This is the case of Beijing Express, where catch-up viewing represents 30% of the total audience of the program, but also for example of the Best Pastry Chef where the level of joint listening (bringing together all the members of a household) is important, he explains. This is also the case for event entertainment franchises such as Lego Masters and Traitors, renewed on the Six, and the arrival this season of a new entertainment format, with a name that is still confidential. In addition, reality TV also remains a key genre for the M6 ​​group, in particular on the 6Play platform and on the W9 channel (Les Apprentis Aventuriers, etc.).

The flow to differentiate

For its part, Canal+ is focusing on three main axes. First its mainstay, creation, including cinema, series, documentaries and animation. The channel, which will broadcast 500 films and more than 60 exclusive series, notably announced the broadcast of “66-5”, a new series on the legal world by the creator of Engrenages, Xavier Giannoli’s first series on crooks. of the carbon tax, or the return to the sitcom of Jamel Debbouze.

Then, sport and live, guaranteeing “live emotion”. Canal+ will offer more concerts and comedy shows, which will be added to its sports offer (Champions League, Formula 1, Top 14… ). The channel will also broadcast numerous international award ceremonies (Oscars, Mostra, Césars, etc.), including now the “Emmy Awards” for series, she announced.

Finally, the Vivendi subsidiary, which wants to reconnect with event broadcasts, will offer new “premium meetings” in encrypted form, including a documentary series aimed at finding a future sports commentator among football fans, a program inspired by the game of role the “werewolf”, or a series of Jérôme Commandeur in the form of a parody of a show.

The stream therefore remains an et to be used for both free and pay channels. For Philippe Bailly, president of NPA Conseil, betting on these programs constitutes “a way of differentiating oneself from platforms, with formats often tested beforehand on foreign markets, but also the possibility of adjusting the program as it is broadcast to optimize it at the margin”. Lower risk taking, for a production budget generally lower than that of a series, he points out. Especially since, with the exception of Amazon Prime Video and its show “LOL: who laughs comes out”, SVOD platforms haven’t found the recipe in this area yet…