In a rather funny and unexpected turn of events, Netflix, the very entity that changed television as we know it, will soon be streaming television from one of France’s largest commercial broadcasters. Beginning next summer, Netflix will stream linear TV from TF1 Group to its French subscribers.

This is a game-changer in how the lines between streaming and linear TV continue to blur.

TF1 Channels + 30,000+ Hours of Content Will Be Available on Netflix

Starting next summer, five TF1 linear channels will become available on Netflix to French subscribers. That means that for the first time, live TV will be available on Netflix. But that’s not where the partnership stops.

By 2026, over 30,000 hours of TF1 on-demand content will also be available on Netflix. That means French subscribers will have access to reality TV shows, scripted dramas, live sports, and a variety of entertainment all on Netflix — live or on-demand.

The partnership between Netflix and TF1, reported by the Financial Times, might seem like a step back to the days of the golden age of cable. But it’s actually a rather progressive move for both parties. For Netflix, it gives the company a way to engage its users more frequently throughout the day and keep them around amid increasing competition across the streaming landscape. And for TF1, it gives the broadcaster a huge new audience and a way to generate more ad revenue.

Netflix and TF1 have already partnered on content such as the French historical drama Les Combattantes (Women at War). This deal takes the partnership to a whole other level.

Details of the deal are not yet known. However, both parties agree that this is not an experiment.

“By partnering with France’s leading broadcaster, we will offer French consumers even more reasons to come to Netflix every day and stay with us for all their entertainment,” said Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters, in the Financial Times report.

The partnership is equally beneficial for TF1. TF1 will still run ads during its linear programming, and those ads will now reach Netflix’s massive audience. This gives the broadcaster a new way to monetize its programming and reach more people through advertisers.

“I don’t know of another case in the world where you can create this link,” said TF1 CEO Rodolphe Belmer, in the Financial Times report. “It’s really a new way of enriching our content distribution. Our content will be better distributed, and our content will reach a much bigger audience in a fragmented world.”

Belmer did not hide from the fact that traditional media is facing challenges. “Linear TV is in secular decline,” he said. “We’ve tried to compensate for that… but also by trying to catch up and benefit from the huge engine of Netflix.”

The partnership may also be a way for Netflix to meet the French regulatory requirement that all streaming services reinvest 20–25% of revenue generated in France back into local content. The TF1 deal fits nicely with that policy.

TF1’s numbers are significant. TF1’s TV channels draw about 58 million viewers each month, while its streaming service TF1+ attracts another 35 million monthly users. By comparison, Netflix has about 10 million subscribers in France, as Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos noted last year.

There is a lot of room for growth. If this deal works, Netflix may look for similar partnerships in other countries in Europe — or even the U.S. Peters noted that the company is open to deals but is waiting to see how this one works before expanding.

And traditional TV isn’t going anywhere. Globally, viewership for both broadcast and cable TV has been on the decline. This week, Nielsen reported that viewership for cable TV was down 2.7% in May, with traditional TV down 3.3%. In May, streaming took 44.8% of total TV viewership for the first time since Nielsen began tracking in 2021, above both cable (24.1%) and broadcast (20.1%).

Other linear channels have already started moving to streaming services like YouTube TV. But Netflix is a more direct way to enter the living rooms of tens of millions of viewers. This deal could even become a model for other struggling channels to find relevance — and monetization — in a streaming-first world.

As Peters put it, “many French consumers think of Netflix as their go-to destination for television.” This deal will make that more true than ever.