Yann Labasque, director of youth programs at TF1, has been highlighting the company’s strong focus on delivering gender-neutral shows that mix comedy and adventure with relatable characters and strong franchise potential. ‘Editorially, our focus is on entertainment rather than education,’ the executive recently said. ‘It’s more about deeper characters and their stories’.
In his recent appearance at Kidscreen 2023, the executive mentioned that two-thirds of the content that TF1 pre-purchases or co-produces must be French and that the team is looking to acquire properties with a bible and a script to start working from the ground up. For the last third of the content that TF1 acquires, the stage of development may differ, but Labasque stressed that the broadcaster tries to get as involved as possible.
TFX, the group’s mainstream channel, focuses on an older audience, and Daphné de Beauffort, executive vice president of youth programming acquisition and diversification, also recently noted that she is interested in anime aimed at young adults and families.
Meanwhile, for its SVOD, TFou Max, the team only seeks to acquire catalogs, without co-productions or pre-purchases. ‘The content must be aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 12, and who are already known and loved in France, whether as a series or another format, including content that generates other interaction experiences, such as video games’, de Beauffort said. Likewise, the executive is seeking the AVOD rights of some titles for TF1‘s other platform MYTF1, which is free for viewers and includes advertising.
‘We take a 360-degree approach, as it is best if we can have content that is suitable for linear, SVOD and AVOD’, she said. ‘We don’t buy a lot every year, maybe six to 10 series, because we want to be able to take good care of the show and develop it to last for years’.
