Cinema Across TV and SVOD: Favourite Genre Among Viewers?
In line with the evolution of Médiamétrie’s brand brand Brand is the “brand” level. A brand is a set of URLs which are identified by the same logo. A brand is a coherent ensemble from the user viewpoint, in particular given the graphic charter or brand universe. Find out more universe universe All the statistical units from which a survey sample is drawn. When these units are people, the universe is termed a population. Find out more , Audience Audience The set of listeners, viewers, or TV viewers in which each individual is equally weighted, regardless of their listening/viewing duration or frequency of contact. Find out more le Mag is becoming M Insights, Le dossier.
M Insights, "Le dossier" is a monthly in-depth article based on the results of our studies, analyses, and expertise to provide an ever-more nuanced understanding of market trends, as well as insights and analysis of how French media consumption habits are evolving.
Movies are broadcast broadcast A mode of transmission whereby a transmitter sends the same audio and video stream to many receivers within a coverage area. In the context of computer networks, broadcast mode is contrasted with “multicast” and “unicast” modes, which respectively refer to the transmission of a stream to a given group of recipient devices and to a single recipient device. OR : Putting a show or a programme on television or radio. This term refers to a programme that is broadcast live as opposed to on-demand. Find out more on television and available via video on demand to reach reach Reach is the term used to describe the reach achieved by a medium, publication, advertisement or campaign. It corresponds to the number of users reached and is therefore quantitative data. Reach plays a key role in measuring return on investment. It is used to determine whether or not the communication is effective. Whether for a website or a social network, reach corresponds to the proportion of the Internet user population or the audience reached by the site or network over a set period. Find out more or reconnect with an audience audience The set of listeners, viewers, or TV viewers in which each individual is equally weighted, regardless of their listening/viewing duration or frequency of contact. Find out more that is less likely to go to movie theaters. TV Viewers are fond of French comedies that have been box-office hits, and streaming streaming A technical method of digitally transmitting data to enable the playback of a continuous flow of video and audio material. Unlike terrestrial or satellite TV broadcasting, this technology requires a two-way network (internet) to send periodic requests to the streaming server in order to receive video or audio micro-files. Find out more services prioritize new releases, especially for purchase or pay-per-view rentals.
Does the distribution distribution This refers to the distribution of a variable; “structure” is also used with this meaning. In statistics, for each x value of a quantitative variable, the distribution function gives the proportion of individuals having a variable value that is less than or equal to x. Find out more of movies on TV and SVOD help give them some of the viewability that they are finding increasingly difficult to achieve in theaters, where attendance has still not returned to pre-pandemic levels? The performance of certain French films might suggest that it is first and foremost a film’s success at the box office box office Classification of films according to the number of cinema admissions. Find out more that guarantees its popularity with TV Viewers and streaming audiences. The Intouchables, the third-highest-grossing film of all time at the French Box Office—behind Titanic and Welcome to the Sticks—with nearly 19.5 million theatergoers in 2011–2012—thus achieved the highest television viewership for a movie during the 2014–2024 period. When it first aired during prime time prime time The section of the programme schedule covering the “main show” of the evening, which also corresponds to the time slot with the highest television audience. In France, prime time falls in the morning before 9am for radio, and in the early evening for television, generally between 8:50pm and 10:30pm. Find out more on TF1 on December 7, 2014, it drew nearly 13.9 million TV Viewers aged 4 and older.
French Comedy in the Spotlight
Welcome to the Land of the Ch’tis, What Did We Do to God?, Les Tuche and even Les Visiteurs—which was rebroadcast during the lockdown in April 2020—all attracted more than 8 million TV Viewers. Last year, Maison de retraite achieved the highest television viewership for a feature film, captivating approximately 7 million people on TF1 during Prime time Prime time The section of the programme schedule covering the “main show” of the evening, which also corresponds to the time slot with the highest television audience. In France, prime time falls in the morning before 9am for radio, and in the early evening for television, generally between 8:50pm and 10:30pm. Find out more on March 10, 2024, and thus ranking 32nd spot in the Top 100 TV ratings, across all film genres. So, once again, it was a French comedy—but one that had been seen by only slightly more than 2 million moviegoers in theaters (17th in box office box office Classification of films according to the number of cinema admissions. Find out more receipts in 2022).
Video works for streaming streaming A technical method of digitally transmitting data to enable the playback of a continuous flow of video and audio material. Unlike terrestrial or satellite TV broadcasting, this technology requires a two-way network (internet) to send periodic requests to the streaming server in order to receive video or audio micro-files. Find out more service subscribers
That doesn’t stop streaming service subscribers from watching and rewatching the great classics of the 7th art. After attracting more than 9.4 million moviegoers to theaters last year, The Count of Monte Cristo recorded more than 2.9 million Streaming views on myCANAL in the first four months of 2025. This marks continued success for this new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s classic, which is nevertheless the only feature film to appear in the Top 10 most-watched films on SVOD. It is notably surpassed by two other films that were not released in theaters—classified as “Direct to Video”—namely the Franco-Belgian thriller Ad Vitam and the American action film Back in Action, which collectively garnered approximately 4 million viewings on Netflix between January and April 2025.
In 2024, one had to go all the way down to tenth place among the most-watched single-episode dramas on streaming services to find the first theatrical film. The American biopic Oppenheimer, which had drawn more than 4.4 million moviegoers to theaters, nearly reached 2.6 million views among myCANAL and then Netflix streamers in 2024. This is a far cry from the French films Sous la Seine and Loups-garous —the year’s hits with more than 5.4 million and 3.7 million views over twelve months, respectively—and American direct-to-video dramas produced for Netflix. “Streaming platforms have the ability to raise brand brand Brand is the “brand” level. A brand is a set of URLs which are identified by the same logo. A brand is a coherent ensemble from the user viewpoint, in particular given the graphic charter or brand universe. Find out more awareness awareness Knowledge that a format (TV network, radio station, magazine), show, host, or brand exists. Spontaneous recall (in response to an open-ended question) is distinguished from aided recall (in response to a closed-ended question). Find out more instantly, with a homepage that highlights current and upcoming releases,” explains Marine Boulanger. This isn’t always the case for theatrical films, which often suffer from a lack of awareness due to a lack of information about their release dates.”
A substantial selection of content on Prime time Prime time The section of the programme schedule covering the “main show” of the evening, which also corresponds to the time slot with the highest television audience. In France, prime time falls in the morning before 9am for radio, and in the early evening for television, generally between 8:50pm and 10:30pm. Find out more TV and SVOD
In the absence of good viewability for its new releases, the film industry continues to show “good stability on television, with a good balance between supply and consumption,” notes Isabelle Maurice. In 2024, feature films accounted for 5% of the programming offered by free-to-air channels throughout the day and 6% of television viewership—nearly as much as in 2014. There is a strong concentration of the 7e art in Prime time, where last year it accounted for 20% of the content offered between 9:15 p.m. and 10:50 p.m., representing 18% of what the public watched. “Movies are the second most-watched genre during prime time after TV dramas—whether series or standalone episodes—which account for 24% of the offerings and 32% of viewership,” explains the Médiamétrie expert.
Among subscription video-on-demand services, movies accounted for nearly half of the content available during the January–May 2025 period, with 13,189 of the 27,182 unique titles recorded by Médiamétrie, far ahead of other types of programming offered (source: SVOD Monitor study study Any research done across a population, line of business, or products (programme content, programme schedules, etc.) A study relies most often on the data coming out of a survey (or surveys). Find out more , May 2025). Specifically, the film category (in the broad sense, as it includes both theatrical releases and films released directly to video) dominates the catalogs of the market’s leading providers—Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and myCANAL. Prime Video “clearly asserts its ambition to dominate the film offering, with 4,453 titles available in May compared to 3,060 on Netflix, 2,711 on myCANAL, and 1,104 on Disney+,” states the SVOD Monitor study.
But it is platforms like Disney+, Max, Paramount, and myCANAL that offer the highest proportion of films that were first released in theaters (between 75 and 90% of their movie catalog). Among the two market leaders, Netflix and Prime Video, the share of titles that premiered in theaters is estimated at 19% and 32%, respectively, of their film offerings. And on Apple TV+, it’s only 6%... To attract and ensure retention of audiences, these platforms are focusing more on exclusivity and original content.
In fact, as indicated by the National Center for Cinematography and the Moving Image in its 2024 Barometer Barometer By analogy with meteorology, this term designates any regular measurement that can give an account of changes in audience, opinion, image, etc. Find out more released in mid-May, “film is the most-watched genre on physical video (72.4%) and even more so on transactional video-on-demand (85.6%).” The organization also notes that “the film Un p’tit truc en plus tops the best-seller list in this latter segment.” ” In its annual report published in early 2025, it further emphasizes that “transactional video is dependent on the theatrical market, and in particular on the supply of films in exclusive theatrical release.” In other words, it is primarily recent films that benefit from video, mainly through one-time purchases and rentals.
This situation can be explained in part by media chronology, the regulatory system governing the broadcasting of films. Under this framework—which has been the subject of significant negotiations and several changes in recent years—video distribution distribution This refers to the distribution of a variable; “structure” is also used with this meaning. In statistics, for each x value of a quantitative variable, the distribution function gives the proportion of individuals having a variable value that is less than or equal to x. Find out more —whether on physical media (DVD or Blu-ray) or digital digital A signal is said to be digital if it can be represented by a series of discrete values that can be coded in binary as either 0 or 1. It is the opposite of analogue signal. Digital broadcasting has become the primary mode for television broadcasting, whether by cable, satellite, or even terrestrial. Find out more (VOD)—sold on a pay-per-view basis—has retained the first-window advantage, four months after a film’s theatrical release. This allows it to capitalize on the public’s appetite for new releases, particularly those that were successful in theaters and still enjoy high awareness awareness Knowledge that a format (TV network, radio station, magazine), show, host, or brand exists. Spontaneous recall (in response to an open-ended question) is distinguished from aided recall (in response to a closed-ended question). Find out more . Other distributors have recognized this, with pay-TV channels and subscription platforms pushing to shorten these timeframes in their favor to adapt to changing viewing habits. Since 2022, CANAL+ and myCANAL have been able to offer new movies six months after their release, while Netflix can do so 15 months later. As for Disney+, it secured a 9-month window in early 2025, while other paid video services—Prime Video, Apple TV+, etc.—and free-to-air channels remained at 17 and 22 months, respectively. But the system could still change: Netflix and Amazon have filed an appeal with the Council of State to overturn this new release window. The debate is therefore far from over.