It seems that even streaming pioneer Netflix wants to see live TV on your TV. By the summer of 2025, the company plans to make five live broadcast channels available to French subscribers from France’s largest commercial broadcaster, TF1 Group.

It’s an unprecedented move that is also potentially paradoxical. After helping kill traditional TV, Netflix is trying out some of the broadcaster’s tactics. Here’s how.

How Netflix and TF1 Joined Forces

The partnership with Netflix will give subscribers in France a familiar TV experience inside a modern streaming platform. In addition to providing live access to the channels, subscribers will also have on-demand access to more than 30,000 hours of content from TF1 by the summer of 2026. That includes the hit reality show The Voice, scripted dramas, and live sports — a more varied offering and an expanded presence in France for Netflix.

Netflix and TF1 have collaborated before, co-producing the French historical drama series Les Combattantes (or Women at War) but this deal is much deeper. It’s an integration of live broadcast channels inside the interface — a move that few other streaming services have attempted.

The two companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal but it will likely be a long-term arrangement.

“We think this deal gives us a chance to increase daily engagement, which is the biggest thing we need now that we don’t share our subscribers anymore,” said Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters. “By partnering with France’s leading broadcaster, we will give French consumers even more reasons to come to Netflix every day and stay with us for all their entertainment.”

For TF1, the deal will be transformative in terms of exposure and advertising. TF1’s live channels will still feature ads, allowing the broadcaster to reach more viewers and be more appealing to advertisers.

“Today’s alliance will make it possible to integrate our top-quality programs into a distribution system that has gained a phenomenal amount of momentum,” said TF1 CEO Rodolphe Belmer. “The joint effort is in line with our ambition to enhance our program offering in the context of digital and evolving audience behavior, as on-demand consumption becomes more and more popular and fragmentation of audiences increases.”

While linear TV is in “secular decline,” he added, alliances like this one can keep the company relevant by “making the most of the immense driving force that is Netflix.”

Serving Regulations and Hitting a Big Audience

it allows the company to comply with a new regulation that will soon be in place in France. Since last year, all streaming platforms with more than 500,000 viewers are now required to reinvest 20% to 25% of the revenues they make in France into local content.

Teaming up with TF1 will help Netflix to comply with that regulation and build out its library with more content that resonates with its audience. TF1’s broadcast channels are watched by 58 million viewers every month, while its streaming service TF1+ has 35 million users. Netflix only has around 10 million subscribers in France, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos during a press event in 2022.

Netflix’s streamers can attract TF1’s regulars and vice versa. That creates a feedback loop of interest and attention between the two services.

There could be even more of this in the future. “We will test it and see how it performs, and then look to expand it to other countries and geographies,” Peters said. That could mean a model like this spreading to other countries in Europe and eventually in the U.S.

And there’s a larger change happening: consumer habits are changing. According to Nielsen, streaming reached 44.8% of total TV viewing in May, surpassing cable (24.1%) and broadcast (20.1%) for the first time since it started tracking in 2021.

Many live channels are already available on services like YouTube TV, but the integration of linear channels by Netflix represents a broader shift. Streaming services are not only competing with TV — they are cannibalizing it.

from a weekly must-watch series to live sports and current affairs. For many French viewers, Netflix already is their TV. Soon it will become the TV.

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