In 2024, French people each spent 4 hours 23 minutes watching video content every day. While this video consumption time has stabilised and returned to a level similar to 2019, before the health crisis, the universe it covers – TV channels and their BVoD (1) platforms, SVoD(2), AVoD(3) players and social platforms – is experiencing profound upheavals.

With the digitalisation of uses, multiplication of devices, increased availability of content and strategies of publishers vying to find inventive ways to stay competitive in the daily lives of internet video users, the world of video is changing more than ever.

       " Today, 92% of French households have at least one smartphone and almost 40% of video consumption of TV programmes on digital devices at home is non-live*. In order to reflect these new uses, Médiamétrie has, for the past year, extended the scope of TV audience measurement and now takes into account 100% of households in France, including the 10% that do not have a television."

Isabelle Maurice, Director of Studies, Monitoring and Forecasting

A record-breaking summer for television

Driven by exceptional sporting (Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris) and political (European and legislative elections, dissolution of the French National Assembly) events, the usual drop in media audiences during the summer has been halted.

Among the most constant viewers of media, young people aged 15 to 24 even saw the average time they spend watching television each day jump by 18% this summer, compared to the first half of 2024.

The biggest audience in television history, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, on 26 July, attracted 24.4 million viewers. And each French person spent on average a total of 28 hours watching Olympic and Paralympic events.

As for political news, 23.2 million French people watched at least one of the two televised debates for the legislative elections, while news channels achieved a 10% audience share for the first time in June 2024.

Platforms are a symbol of the digital acceleration

In addition to these unmissable, unifying events, which are mainly watched live, in 2024, more than one third (36%) of French people's video consumption happens whenever they want, on a platform.

Among these platforms, those offered by television channels (BVoD) are more and more popular. Nearly 8 in 10 French people (79%) visited a BVoD platform at least once a month during the year. At the end of 2024, 11.6 million were watching at least one on-demand programme daily, which is 10% more than in the first quarter.

       "The strength of TV media today is being able to combine powerful live broadcasting, which brings people together during key television moments, with the richness of on-demand content offering on BVoD platforms."

Laurence Deléchapt, Director of TV & Cross Médias

In 2024, French people watched an average of 10 minutes of on-demand television every day on these same platforms and are now accustomed to catching up with programmes after their live broadcast (on catch-up) or watching them before (in preview). Evidence of this success includes seeing catch-up content recording more than 500,000 viewers increase by 80% compared to 5 years ago and 72% of programmes watched in preview today being fiction.

Another key factor in the success of BVoD platforms is the “aggregation” strategy developed by television channels, which consists of offering streamed content other than their own, through partnerships.

Content : will the trends of 2024 shape 2025 ?

In terms of the content itself, several trends are emerging.

The news is now focusing on the long format with, among other things, national television news broadcasts increasing by 20 minutes per day in total compared to 2023.

French programmes inspire foreign adaptations. For example, Les Rencontres du Papotin on France 2, which has been adapted in 7 countries more than half of which were in 2024, or the successful HPI series on TF1, the American version of which attracted 6.6 million viewers.

French content is also increasingly popular on SVoD platforms, which have seen an increase of 39% in French titles available compared to 2020.

Moreover, SVoD players are using sport more than ever to broadcast live content, whether by creating their own events, co-broadcasting competitions or holding the exclusive rights to them.

Finally, artificial intelligence is gradually being introduced into content, to facilitate subtitling on news channels, for example, or on the platforms themselves to support search engines or dubbing.

(1) Broadcaster Video on Demand, and advertising-financed platform for the free distribution of video content, including content from traditional TV broadcasters.

(2) Subscription Video on Demand, offering a subscription to a digital catalogue of videos on demand : the customer pays a flat fee giving access to a wide choice of videos.

(3) Advertising Video on Demand, free video content broadcasting platform financed by advertising.

* Audience for a programme in preview**, replay, personal recording and live control.

** Mode of consumption of a television programme available on a platform before it is broadcast live.