As the global entertainment network in French, TV5MONDE broadcasts 24/7 and offers content in 13 subtitled languages worldwide, providing 7 premium services TV5MONDE USA, TV5MONDE Cinema OnDemand, TV5MONDE Style, TV5MONDE Docs, TV5MONDE Info, TiVi5MONDE and TV5MONDEplus VOD.
This year, the French public group celebrated the 10th anniversary of TiVi5MONDE. Launched in January 2012, the channel is mainly aimed at French-speaking African children (4 to 13 years old) and the main objective is to teach French to young children through specific programs.
The children’s channel broadcasts educational programs, cartoons, children’s series and games. All programming is francophone and ad-free. Among them, Our neighbors the pirates, Gabao, The Story House, Coach Me if you Can and Hey, little wolves! Actions to remember, etc.
‘We are producing several originals in Africa, where the talent is getting better every year. And not only there, but also in Morocco and other Afro-Arab territories. Currently, the genre represents 12% of our lineup, but we plan to reach 20% in the near future, adding international co-productions’, the company’s CEO, Yves Bigot, explained to PRENSARIO.
The exec it referred to the Group’s global expansion and remarked that it is going through a ‘crucial’ global moment while ‘navigating the pandemic we have expanded into streaming with the TV5MONDEPlus service, which was launched in September 2020’.
‘TV5MONDEplus is offered everywhere in the USA and is included with a TV5MONDE subscription; It is also distributed as AVOD in other latitudes, providing more than 6,000 hours of content for 16 million people around the world and offering subtitles to subscribers in up to 5 languages. We have movies, TV series, documentaries, lifestyle programs, animation, web formats and iconic programs (French Natural History Museum lectures)’, added Bigot.
Early this year, the company announced a strategic partnership with NetgemGroup to launch TV5MONDEplus in the UK and Ireland across more than 15 ultra-fast fiber broadband providers (PC, Android, iOS, Samsung, Amazon Firestick and Chromecast). The content includes series with audience records in their countries, such as the Canadian Unité 9, the Swiss Helvetica, the French Meurtres à…., the Belgian EnnemiPublic or the Senegalese-Nigerian political thriller Wara, films of all genres including action, comedy and drama, documentaries, concerts, children’s programs, magazines and podcasts.
Bigot emphasized on the broadcast strategy: ‘We are learning as we walk. Although there are so many different business models, we are primarily focusing on AVOD but always looking at new options that can add value to our programming’.
All programming available on its seven services must be spoken in French. The content strategy is divided into three: first, the best offers from French channels such as France Télévisions, ARTE, RTS (Switzerland) and RTBF (Belgium); second, own productions, including news, documentaries, lifestyle programming and content produced in Africa: cinema, television series, documents, magazines, shows, animation; and third, acquisitions of the same genres.
‘We are expanding our production slate in Africa, bringing in more content, such as the drama series Wara, filmed in Senegal but featuring talent from the Pan-African region. Or Timbuktu, nominated for an Oscar (2014). Every year, we have at least one new film nominated for the Cannes Film Festival’, Bigot stressed.
Annually, TV5MONDE generates 4-5 movies plus 20 new and recurring TV series a year, produced in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Central America and Indian Ocean territories. ‘We try to have a new show from each of these francophone countries. The programming strategy of these contents differs according to the territory: if it is free or pays like TV5MONDE USA’, commented the executive.
To conclude, Bigotres stressed that the company is not thinking of launching new services at the moment, but there are always new ideas on the way: ‘The last network we launched was in 2017, TV5MONDE Style, which is now available in the US, Arab and African countries. . and rapidly expanding in Southeast Asia. Our offer includes trips, documents and entertainment. We are always open to new opportunities’.
