This news is almost funny. Netflix is now going to stream live broadcast channels in France.

Come next summer, all Netflix subscribers in the country will be able to watch TF1 Group’s channels. The France-based company is the nation’s largest commercial broadcaster. The five linear channels will show up right in the Netflix interface so that people can get the traditional TV experience without leaving the app.

And that’s not all. According to the Financial Times, in the summer of 2026, Netflix users in France will also get more than 30,000 hours of TF1’s on-demand content. That includes scripted dramas, reality shows (like The Voice), and live sports programming.

It’s not exactly a surprise that these two have agreed to work together. They already partnered to co-produce Les Combattantes (Women at War) — a historical French miniseries that Netflix viewers might know better as The Outlaws. However, this agreement marks an entirely new level of cooperation between the two companies.

Specifically, Netflix will stream all of TF1’s channels in France.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but the two companies believe the arrangement has the potential to be mutually beneficial. In the wake of its recent decisions to no longer report subscriber numbers, the company is clearly doubling down on engagement as a key performance indicator.

“For French consumers, this deal means they’ll get more of the content they love from TF1 Group, one of the world’s leading creators and distributors of premium content,” said Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters. “We’re excited to bring their channels to members across the country, and provide a way for them to watch on any device they want. For our members, this deal means even more of the entertainment they love, coming at the moment they want it. We know they will love the expanded selection of stories they can watch on Netflix. For investors, it will help us achieve greater returns on our investment in France, and that’s a good thing for everyone.”

On TF1’s end, the partnership is about generating new revenue. More specifically, it’s about finding new opportunities in the world of advertising. The broadcaster will still include ads during its linear programming, and Netflix’s massive subscriber base means that those commercials will be seen by more eyeballs than ever before.

“For several years, audiences have been moving away from traditional television, toward new platforms and content on-demand. The growth of on-demand video, combined with the transformation of viewers’ consumption habits, means the number of screens and devices they watch is growing,” said Rodolphe Belmer, CEO of TF1. “This alliance allows us to make the group’s production — to which we are extremely proud — accessible to unparalleled audiences. It’s an unprecedented alliance that, thanks to its industrial strength, makes it possible to create new income for the Group and opens up significant prospects.”

Belmer noted that, at the end of the day, the arrangement will help the broadcaster find new audiences. The agreement also allows the company to meet new regulatory requirements, too. In 2021, the French government mandated that all streaming services reinvest 20 to 25 percent of their French revenue into French productions. A deal with the nation’s largest commercial broadcaster checks that box.

Additionally, the partnership could potentially lead to audience growth. According to FT, TF1’s linear channels currently reach around 58 million viewers per month, while TF1+, the broadcaster’s streaming service, reaches 35 million viewers per month. Compared to that, Netflix has only around 10 million subscribers in France, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos.

Still, if the partnership proves to be a success, it could spark similar agreements in other countries. According to Peters, Netflix will wait and see how the arrangement works out before exploring the possibility of adding additional linear broadcasters to the streaming service.

This deal comes at a time when linear broadcasting has been seeing a resurgence of sorts. Just this week, Nielsen reported that for the first time since it started tracking viewership in 2021, more Americans watched TV on streaming services (44.8%) than on cable (24.1%) or broadcast (20.1%) last month. Streaming accounted for nearly half of all television watching.

With this news, linear broadcasters, which once saw their industry threatened by services like Netflix, may find new life in the very companies they once competed with. Rather than fight, it seems TF1 is willing to embrace the future of TV.

“We’re seeing linear TV in secular decline,” Belmer said. “We’ve tried to compensate… by launching our own free-to-view platform. But also by trying to tie up and benefit from the huge driving force of Netflix.”

For French viewers, the deal might seem almost seamless. According to Peters, a lot of people in the country already think of Netflix as “TV.” With this deal, that definition could become literal — not just in France, but potentially in other parts of the world.