Shapiro: “TikTok gets more attention than any other platform in France”
July 10, 2026
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
Media thought leader Evan Shapiro, delivering a keynote address at commercial PSB France Télévisions’ 2026/27 season ‘streaming first’ preview screening, has said that “when you get down to the youngest members of the French society, TikTok gets more attention than any other platform in this region,” adding that it was not just more, but more than TF1, France Télévisions and M6 combined.
“Television plays a role, but it does not play the primary role any longer,” he noted. “Here is a great example: this landmark deal that France Télévisions made with YouTube.”
The PSB group’s line-up and strategy focused on YouTube and digital usage, rather on linear TV.
“Here in France, still half of the French population are millennials and younger,” he advised. “Forty-six per cent, nearly half of the French workforce are millennials and younger. If you think they’re going to see the world and use media the same way that boomers and Gen Xers did, you’re out of your mind,” he argued, reinforcing his assertions with relevant data.
“This population is driving the user-centric era. Sixty-five per cent of the population say that the phone is by far more than two to one, their number one device for watching video. TV scores about 25 per cent or less with the general population. Traditional television is now an old age home. It’s a senior living society. It is no longer attracting the vast majority of consumers. The time and attention that we traditionally spent historically on TV has been replaced by a combination of streaming and social video. And the younger the consumer gets, the more that is true,” he stressed.
“After our historical partnership with YouTube, creators are also becoming allies to reach complementary audiences,” admitted deputy managing director Stephane Sitbon Gomez, citing the GP explorer experience in September 2025 which drove 20,000 new accounts to platform France.tv, including 70 per cent of people under 24 years old.
“France Télévisions has become the first streaming platform in France with 47 million monthly visitors,” he declared, while president Delphine Ernotte Cunci pointed out the three billion monthly views on social networks. “Our strategy is to be everywhere, where French people watch content, either on linear channels or VoD platforms,” she added.
The new motto of the group is based on defending its public missions rather than a specific broadcasting mode.
Despite a €110 million budget decrease in the last two years, France Télévisions shared a few examples of upcoming content, anticipating the development of a “without equivalent” news offering on YouTube and the arrival of new formats and French web stars on its channels and social networks. Webtoons scrolled on smartphones, e-sport as well as new romance are also trending genres that will be explored. Overall, more than €80 million cuts have been made in the new season costs.
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