Netflix is betting on live TV. Starting in summer 2025, the streamer will offer access to five linear broadcast channels from France’s largest commercial TV broadcaster, TF1 Group, as part of a major content deal with the company.

The move is unusual, but also strategic. Netflix is in the business of destroying TV, but here it’s playing by its own playbook.

“Partnering with France’s leading broadcaster to deliver live TV to Netflix members will allow us to make people in France feel even more like they are getting a great value for their monthly subscription, because they can come to Netflix every day for all their entertainment,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said in a statement.

“We are really thrilled about this unique and exciting deal, which marks a first step in bringing live TV into our service and brings our users access to premium content from France’s leading commercial broadcaster. It will allow us to bring them closer to their favorite shows and live sports, which will enable us to increase daily usage, another key metric as we don’t share subscriber numbers anymore.”

A report in the Financial Times revealed that under the terms of the deal, Netflix will have the right to show five live channels, and will make available more than 30,000 hours of on-demand content from TF1 by summer 2026. In addition to giving viewers access to live channels, the agreement also gives subscribers access to hit reality TV, scripted dramas and live sports.

The partnership between Netflix and TF1 Group has not been entirely novel. In 2018, the two companies co-produced the French historical drama Les Combattantes (Women at War) but this new agreement goes much further. Netflix will integrate the linear broadcast of TV channels into its service, a practice that few streaming platforms have explored.

No financial details of the deal were disclosed, but the scale of the deal suggests a long-term commitment.

For Netflix, the deal represents a way to drive daily engagement. Streaming viewing has increased as television viewing declines. According to a report by Cowen, 64% of homes in the U.S. had a pay-TV subscription in 2020. By 2026, the figure will drop to 58%, according to Nielsen.

“The disruption of linear TV is occurring faster than anyone thought,” the report says.

To add insult to injury, cable TV providers have found a new way to monetize over-the-top (OTT) subscribers. While content aggregators like Sling and Hulu cut back on content offerings, cable operators are including streaming bundles as a free perk to subscribers. Cox, for example, offers Spectrum TV Choice.

Netflix is also focused on attracting new subscribers in France. In 2022, Peters said that Netflix has just over 10 million subscribers in France. Meanwhile, in April 2022, broadcast TV saw a 7.3% increase in its share of viewing compared to the same month last year, while cable viewing declined 11.5% during the same period, according to Eurodata research.

There’s also a compliance element. A streaming platform is required to reinvest between 20 and 25% of its revenues in France into local content. Partnering with TF1 will help Netflix satisfy that mandate and keep its library expanding.

For TF1, the partnership will provide exposure and will allow the company to keep its ad-supported live channels relevant to advertisers.

“The deal is an important piece of our strategy as we need to constantly evolve and adapt to meet the expectations of audiences who are changing how they consume content,” said TF1 Group CEO Rodolphe Belmer in a statement. “As viewing habits move towards on-demand consumption and audience fragmentation increases, this unique alliance will allow our premium content to reach never-before-seen audiences. We are convinced that this alliance will provide TF1 with a growth engine, and will position us as a player in the next chapter of television, to benefit from the huge driving force of Netflix.”

If it works, it could be a solution to TF1’s problem of a secular decline in linear TV. Broadcast TV is in a crisis. For example, NBCUniversal’s live sports channel Peacock recently faced its second round of layoffs in two years, per the Wall Street Journal.

In 2021, Amazon laid off workers at Prime Video, whose streaming service competes with a growing slate of channels on Roku, such as The Roku Channel, Xumo and Sling TV. AT&T recently rebranded its streaming service from HBO Max to HBO and GO.

Netflix may also reap a windfall in viewership. TF1’s live channels attract 58 million viewers per month, according to 2022 statistics from the company. The TF1 streaming service TF1+ attracts 35 million viewers per month, according to April 2022 data from the company. At a recent earnings call, Peters said that Netflix has just over 10 million subscribers in France.

There’s a huge audience at stake, and this could help Netflix capture some of TF1’s existing viewers and vice versa. For the sake of viewer data, this could be a win-win for the two companies.

“This is not a one-off deal,” said Peters. “We’ll see how this partnership works out and then look at other regions around the world to see if there’s something similar that would make sense for us.”

At the moment, Netflix’s integration of TF1 live channels into its streaming platform is the furthest thing to go. The new deal adds another source of TV programming to its growing catalog, which includes Netflix originals like “Stranger Things” and “Ozark” as well as other content such as animated shows, reality shows, series, movies, anime and documentaries.

The trend is a harbinger of the future of streaming services, where the decline of TV is seen as the streaming giants acquire the media companies.

For TF1, a major concern is not that the streaming platform is providing viewers with access to live sports but that it will reach more viewers with its ads.

This partnership is likely to pave the way for more French content on the service, according to an interview with the Associated Press.

“For the first time, all of TF1’s French-speaking TV content will be offered on Netflix,” said Benot Creminel, senior vice president and head of content at TF1, said. “They are looking to build on the enormous demand for their existing catalog, and we are sure this partnership will have a long and lasting future.”