TF1 alerts the government to the need to act quickly to support French audiovisual production, weakened by the domination of American digital platforms and the fall in advertising revenue.
The TF1 group sent a letter to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu this Thursday to request emergency measures to support the French audiovisual industry in the face of American giants. This initiative comes at a time when advertising revenues from television channels are experiencing a sharp decline, putting the financing of creation at risk.
Falling revenues and downsizing
In its letter, TF1 warns: “Inaction is no longer an option.” The group highlights the urgency of the situation and calls on the government to act quickly. “We do not understand the lack of response from the executive to [nos] legitimate, obvious, consensual and easy-to-understand requests. We therefore appeal to your arbitration to make our situation heard,” writes Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of the TF1 group.
Linear television advertising resources fell by 12% over the year 2025, and another 8% in the first quarter, according to the unified advertising market barometer. This contraction has direct repercussions on the entire sector. “Almost all audiovisual groups have initiated a dynamic of reducing their program budgets. This will inevitably (…) have an impact on employment in the production sector – announcements of workforce reduction plans are already increasing,” the letter indicates. Bangumi (Quotidien) thus had to let go of around forty employees out of 130. Layoffs also took place at Banijay, Mediawan, Eléphant and among smaller players.
The animation industry is particularly affected. “Investment in creation has fallen, whether in number of projects or per project. Activity fell by 36% in the first quarter,” warns Isabelle Degeorges, president of the Audiovisual Production Union (USPA). “We are told that series, documentaries and films from Netflix or Amazon compensate. But Netflix is 18 productions per year compared to 745 for France Télévisions and 200 for TF1.”
TF1 denounces a regulatory framework inherited from the 1980s, which “suffocates our national players” while the American giants are not subject to it. “We are confronting the Gafam, while the State imposes rules on us that do not apply to them. That’s enough!” thunders Rodolphe Belmer. He recalls that “many consensus reforms can be taken by decree”, without going through a Parliament paralyzed since the dissolution.
The letter calls for a broad liberalization of the rules governing television advertising, in particular the increase in advertising volume to a maximum of 14 minutes per hour by 2028, compared to 9 today. TF1 also calls for an end to the limit of 6 minutes of cuts for a film, the 20-minute spacing between two cuts within the same program, or the ban on advertising messages in news magazines of less than 30 minutes. The group also wants a relaxation of the rules for sponsoring TV shows and the possibility of indicating the address of a place in an advertisement.
Another demand, the end of the ban on broadcasting advertisements for promotional operations of mass distribution, a “French oddity” according to Rodolphe Belmer, which led to a complaint filed this week in Brussels. “The weight of Gafam in advertising is 10 points higher in France compared to the average of European countries,” he recalls.
An advertising market captured by American platforms
Advertisers’ money has moved towards digital, to the benefit of American platforms. Social networks captured 41% of the growth in the digital advertising market in the first half of the year, according to the e-pub Observatory. YouTube accounts for almost 50% of online video advertising, and streaming services like Netflix, Disney and Amazon account for 13%.
To face this competition, TF1 and M6 launched their own platforms, TF1+ and M6+, whose advertising revenues increased by 18% in one year. TF1 has also launched an offer aimed at local advertisers, who today invest primarily in Facebook and Instagram, and has formed an alliance with Netflix to distribute its programs there while keeping control of advertising revenue. But these initiatives are not enough to compensate for the drop in revenues from linear television.
A sectoral consensus, but little progress
Already in June 2025, a white paper dissecting the economic difficulties of television and ways to improve the situation was submitted by LaFa, the association bringing together private and public players in the sector. “The observation around the asymmetries of competition with digital players and the need to dust off obsolete regulations creates a striking consensus in the sector,” explains Rodolphe Belmer. But, a year later, “the effect of the white paper was zero. This is why we appeal to the Prime Minister for the executive to take its responsibilities, while the sector is being shaken up.”
TF1 insists on the urgency of a reaction from the executive to preserve French audiovisual production and employment in the sector.
