Transforming Television: France Télévisions’ Strategy to Capture the Youth Audience on Social Media

2023-10-15 08:14:00

In seventeen years, from 2006 to the present, the average age of French people has increased from 39.5 years to 42.4 years. On the other hand, it only took three short years for the number of French viewers to increase in the same proportions, from 54 to 57 years old. The observation is clear: television has become a very aging medium. To the point of making its leaders shudder.

Among our neighbors across Quiévrain, the public service has decided to take the bull by the horns. And to triple, in five years, its budget intended for under 25s. A quarter of its resources (compared to 8% currently) will therefore be devoted to… a quarter of the population. “It is not a lost cause, but we have nevertheless reached a tipping point,” explains Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez, director of programs and antennas at France Télévisions. Mobile is the gateway for young people to content. Their television is often called YouTube. And their information reflex is on social networks” Before adding: “The right model is not to put programs designed for social networks on our airwaves or vice versa.”

France Télévisions will therefore launch its seduction operation aimed at 12-18 year olds on social networks with a news show, C quoi l’info, and a series, Deter, in addition to educational programs intended for high school students. In the other direction, the star of Instagram, YouTube and Tik Tok, HugoDécrypte, will come to do TV interviews. Starting with that of Thomas Pesquet.

“It’s a huge change in France Télévisions’ offering,” concludes Stéphane Sitbon-Gomez. A priori, the State shareholder will not triple our resources. This ambition will therefore involve redeployments, transformations, perhaps a divestment from linear in favor of non-linear, the cessation of certain programs…”

In short, dad’s TV is over.

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