French AVOD Service TF1+ Signs With Arte, A&E Television

Since launching at the start of 2024, TF1+, the ad-supported streaming service of France’s leading commercial channel TF1, has nearly doubled its content pipeline through aggregation deals and has increased its digital advertising revenues by about 40%.

The service, which is spearheaded by TF1 president and chairman Rodolphe Belmer, has recently signed partnerships with Franco-German network Arte and A&E Television Network, bringing TF1+’s pipeline of content from 15,000 hours at launch to 25,000 hours today.

In under a year, the service has positioned itself as a leading free streaming aggregation platform in France where it’s now referenced on 95% of French TV sets. Belmer says the platform gets an 80% awareness rate in France and is being watched by an average of 33 million French people every month, for an average of 3.5 hours monthly.

These deals with third-party publishers, such as a “major European broadcaster like Arte and a U.S.-based global player like A&E” allow TF1+ to “expand its editorial scope beyond quality mass-market program aimed at families,” pointed out the executive, who previously headed Canal+ Group for nearly 12 years and later sat on the administration board of Netflix.

“Arte offers a much more elitist range of programs, and A+E has factual entertainment programs that are more masculine and also very interesting for us,” he says.

TF1+, Belmer says, is attractive to third-party publishers not only because of the penetration rate of its platform but also due to its revenue-sharing model. “Third-party inventories are not only presented on TF1+ to the end consumer, but the related advertising inventories are also distributed by TF1’s advertising network. This also enables us to consolidate TF1’s position as the benchmark agency for premium video inventory in France,” Belmer explains.

One of the main goals behind TF1+ was tap into the booming digital video advertising market which Belmer says is worth 2 billion euros. And so far, the service has delivered. At launch, the platform represented about 4% of that market, and is now accounting for roughly 7% of it, according to Belmer.

Our digital advertising sales are up 40% year-on-year and our market share is growing very fast,” he says. “French advertisers are very interested in the arrival of a massive, premium advertising inventory, which is favorable to their brand communication and also represents an alternative to YouTube,” Belmer adds.

Belmer said TF1+ has worked with a firm that “measured that the impact of an ad viewed on TF1+, within a TF1+ program,” and found that it “has a memorable impact around 2.5 times greater than the same ad viewed on YouTube.”

As it looks to attract more brands, the service has now just launched a new offer driven by tech and data.

“Today, we support advertisers in their marketing strategy by providing them with advertising space on television and in digital, but in the digital age, marketing is much more complex and brands extends ever more sophisticated strategies aiming to create touchpoints at every stage of the consumer journey,” Belmer says. 

“We ambition to establish ourselves as the first platform that accompagnies brands in their entire digital strategy, with world-class solutions. We help brands to build awareness and consideration,” he says. “Our new ad solutions also enable brands to interact and build loyalty with prospects, and ultimately convert them as consumers. We call it a full funnel marketing strategy.” 

TF1, whose flagship show “HPI” is being remade in the U.S. by ABC, will launch its latest premium scripted series, “Cat’s Eyes,” a modern, Paris-set adaptation of the cult 1980’s manga, at Mipcom, along with the reboot of its popular singing contest Star Academy.