TF1 ready to arm wrestle to boost MyTF1 audience

The process is tricky. Channel distribution issues have created so many conflicts in recent years that the slightest spark would be enough to rekindle badly extinguished embers… According to our information, TF1 ​has recently taken the initiative to renegotiate the conditions for marketing its content and discussions are tense, especially with Orange​.

This is a must for the new CEO of TF1, Rodolphe Belmer. After the failure of the merger with M6​, its mantra is to ramp up in free streaming funded by advertising (“advertised video on demand” or AVoD). To do this, it needs to directly reach as many viewers as possible, bypassing operator boxes if possible.

Negotiation completed with Canal

Even if none of these multi-year contracts which link the first free channel in France and the actors of “triple play” will expire soon, clauses allow TF1 to renegotiate the terms of distribution. “The market has changed a lot with the arrival of Netflix and Disney in advertising but also the distribution of YouTube on the boxes, justifies the channel. In this context, TF1 tries to adapt its contracts and its relations in a mutually profitable logic with the ‘telcos’. »

Arrived at TF1 in October, when the conflict with Canal+ was in full swing, the new boss quickly settled the matter with the subsidiary of Vivendi. In this “deal”, according to our information, Canal+ does without certain services (MyTF1 Max, previews, etc.) in exchange for a better negotiated rate for the resumption of TF1 offers.

The file is also closed with Free and has probably not even been opened with Bouygues Telecom, sister company of TF1 within the Bouygues group. On the other hand, discussions are tense with Orange. “The contracts are in progress, without any fixed deadline for negotiation”, we say at the operator. With SFR, the talks drag on but stumble more on technique than on principle.

Icon Battle

The world of video on demand has been turned upside down by the launch of offers with advertising from Netflix and Disney+, and if TF1 wants to do well, it must necessarily change things. However, the content of the Bouygues subsidiary is sometimes buried within the tree structures of programs offered in the operators’ boxes.

To establish a more direct relationship with viewers, TF1 would like its MyTF1 service to be accessible directly on the home screens of connected televisions in the same way as services like YouTube or Netflix. A possibility which, according to our information, is not permitted in the agreement with Orange. A consideration conceded a few years ago, when TF1 succeeded in obtaining payment from telecom operators for its content, but which today restricts the front page.

TF1 in search of data

Another key issue behind the renegotiation of contracts: getting boxes and other distributors to share more user data in order to allow TF1 management to better monetize the sale of advertising space. According to some sources, an adverti*****t targeted by this data sells for three to five times more than an unqualified adverti*****t. However, 60% to 70% of the inventories available on MyTF1 are enriched with data, but we still have to improve.

TF1 has just signed an agreement with Retailink (FNAC Darty) to cross-reference the data of users active on MyTF1 and the customers of the merchant sites of this retail group. The objective: to sell inventories to advertisers that very precisely target more than 1,000 consumer segments.

​While the television advertising market in France has been stagnating for several years above 3 billion euros, the private channels (TF1, M6, etc.) want to surf on an expected double-digit growth in the coming years on the television advertising market. the AVoD. And the end of third-party cookies that impact the advertising performance of Facebook (Meta) and Google is, in the eyes of audiovisual leaders, an opportunity to gain market share.