Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters has suggested the streamer could host content from traditional broadcasters as the way audiences watch continues to evolve.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Peters suggested Netflix could help broadcasters “make sure that content gets to as big an audience as possible”.

“Our job is to think about that not only from the BBC’s perspective, but a lot of broadcasters,” he added. “How can we help them connect with audiences that otherwise they’re not really connecting with? We’re eager to do that.”

Last year, Netflix agreed a deal with French broadcaster TF1 to carry both its linear and on-demand content from this summer.

Speaking at the time, Peters described the deal as playing to Netflix’s “strengths of giving audiences the best entertainment alongside the best discovery experience”.

In January, the BBC confirmed a strategic partnership with YouTube, which will see it create and distribute content for the video platform.

[This article originally appeared in our sister publication TVBEurope.]

Netflix signaled its willingness this week to make a notable expansion of its live streaming efforts with a surprise deal to stream the large French commercial broadcaster TF1 in France.

While Netflix has been expanding its offerings of live sports and events, the deal for to offer a live feed of TF1 marks the first time Netflix has committed to a 24/7 live feed, LightShed Partners analysts’ Richard Greenfield, Brandon Ross and Mark Kelley explained in a note to investors.

“Consider TF1 a French experiment,” they wrote. “We’ll learn for the first time if a meaningful number of consumers want to watch live TV beyond sports and news on streaming.”

TF1 won’t launch until the summer of 2026, they stress, adding that investors should not “expect TF1 to be a template for other markets anytime soon. If it does work for Netflix, it would likely be replicated in international markets” but not the U.S.

“France (and other European countries) is also quite different than the U.S. broadcast TV market, as there are no affiliate TV stations,” they said. “TF1 is a singular TV station that operates throughout France. Netflix’s TF1 deal cannot be replicated in the U.S., where Netflix would need agreements with all of a broadcast network’s local station groups to incorporate local programming such as news and sports. That would be torture and hard to imagine ever happening.”

That said, they think the launch could be a win for both parties. “TF1’s scale in France is akin to aggregating ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC together [and] TF1 dwarfs everyone else on linear TV in France,” they argue. “Given that TF1 and TF1+ are free to all consumers in France, and the fact that Netflix will help meaningfully drive viewership of TF1 linear and on-demand programming in France, boosting ad sales, we suspect the cost of the deal is quite reasonable. There is also a meaningful brand benefit to TF1 being associated with Netflix that likely helps them acquire content in the future. … Since France is one of Netflix’s 12 ad tier markets, they likely want to use TF1 to further accelerate overall ad sales.”

SAN JOSE, CA.—French TV channel TF1 has begun relying upon a Harmonic Ultra-HD contribution and distribution solution to broadcast live sports, including soccer and premier motor racing, the company announced today.

The broadcaster is using the Harmonic ViBE CP9000 HD/UHD contribution solution to deliver live UHD coverage of premium sports directly to French service providers. The platform is deployed at the front end of the TF1 broadcast chain to create pristine compressed video and save bandwidth.

"We are gearing up to deliver one of the first live UHD transmissions via IPTV, a feat that can only be accomplished by partnering with a trusted technology provider," said Hervé Pavard, CTO at TF1. TF1 plans to take advantage of the solution’s support for high dynamic range (HDR) in the near future, he added.