Advanced Television

France: YouTube claims lead over linear; SNPTV responds

December 20, 2024

From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

YouTube has become a key destination for viewers in France, and is now the leading destination for video viewing in the country among users aged 15 to 49 years old.
YouTube says it has also overtaken traditional linear channels, citing Médiamétrie’s figure of 42 million users each month.
“YouTube is a unique video platform that complements the audiovisual ecosystem,” commented Isabelle Allanche, Head of YouTube Ads in France. “The time spent per user reached 41 minutes per day, or four minutes more than in 2023, which illustrates the attractiveness of the content offered by creators and among the media.”
“Inoxtag’s documentary Kaizen (39 million views) is among the highlights of the year, and even made the jump to cinema,” Allanche noted.
She notes two major trends marked the year: the rise of Shorts (+25 per cent users in France) which attracted a new generation of talent and the rise of long formats on the big screen, with connected TV as a second viewing screen.
“More than 55 per cent of TV viewing now relates to content longer than 21 minutes and the time spent on smart TV has jumped 35 per cent in two years,” Allanche added.

CTV now represent 40 per cent of YouTube impressions. To take this fourth screen into account regarding audiences, YouTube France has now joined Médiamétrie’s cross-media panel, in order to “contribute to the development of a representative measurement of usage”.

YouTube’s comments have caused anger among the French TV ad agencies: TF1 Pub, M6 Publicité, France TV Publicité, Canal+ Brand Solutions, RMC BFM Ads, Amaury Media, BeIn Régie and Paramount. In the immediate day following Allanche’s interview, they have rebutted through their media association, SNPTV, regarding certain assertions from the Médiamétrie data. According to the union, Allanche’s statements do not convey reality and need to be cleared up.“YouTube is neither the first channel nor the first video destination ahead TV channels”, SNPTV said.

“Data show that television remains largely dominant in terms of coverage and viewing time. For people aged 4 and over, the Google platform reaches 42 million French people each month (62 per cent coverage), compared to 62 million for television (98 per cent of the age group). YouTube only ranks eleventh. Among the 15-49-year-olds, YouTube reaches 24.6 million people per month (91 per cent) compared to 27 million for television (99.8 per cent). This places YouTube in third position,” SNPTV stated.

It also said that the gap is even more marked regarding the viewing time.

“For those aged 4 and over, viewers spend an average of 2 hours 57 minutes per day watching TV, compared to only 26 minutes on YouTube. Among the 15-49-year-olds, TV records an average viewing time of 1 hour 38 minutes, compared to 46 minutes for YouTube” SNPTV said.

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, OTT, Research, UGC

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