Olympic Channel for France Télévisions
January 15, 2024
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
As official TV host to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, France Télévisions is aiming to give higher visibility to its digital platform france.tv. On May 8th, the day when the Olympic Torch is set to arrive in Marseille, the French PSB group will launch The Olympic Channel.
While linear channels France 2 and France 3 will cover live action later on, this digital channel will be a third dedicated to the event. It will follow the Torch’s journey and offer sport documentaries as well as sport news.
Taking advantage of the games, France Télévisions, which has doubled its digital investments since 2018 to €200 million, has shown great ambitions to boost its digital offering and platforms that include france.tv and news service franceinfo, four days after the launch of TF1+.
“35 million viewers come each month to our digital platforms. With the Olympic Games, everybody is going to connect. We want to strongly accelerate and launch a new generation platform,” President Delphine Ernotte told a press conference in Paris.
In the coming months, france.tv will be enriched with new multi-formats content, including podcasts, live news, fact-checking sequences as well as conversation tools with the audience, such as a live chat called Fan Zone during the games. The group’s objective is to evolve from a destination platform to a reference one.
“The platform will no longer be a great content free library, but will become a living media, rooted in actuality,” Ernotte added. Aiming to be more than just a free streaming offering, she said france.tv must become a “daily service” and “a pleasure” to the viewers.
While a documentary-focused digital channel is also set to start before the summer, the group has ruled out setting up an ad-free pay service such as TF1 and M6 have done with TF1+ Premium and 6play max.
“TF1+ is the first free streaming platform where you need to pay everywhere,” noted Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, France Télévisions’ head of channels and programming