‘Historic’ France Télévisions pact with Amazon sees france.tv added to Prime Video

France.tv channels on Prime Video

Public broadcaster France Télévisions has agreed to allow Amazon to carry its streaming service france.tv on Prime Video in France.

France.tv launched on Prime Video yesterday, offering live streams of channels including France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 5.

The move makes nearly 20,000 programmes from france.tv available, including Intervilles, Drag Race France, Tour de France, Surface, Le Serpent, Fort Boyard, Walking With Dinosaurs, Hiroshima and Astrid & Raphaëlle.

With a dedicated presence on the Prime Video home screen in France, it will also feature the daily soap opera Un si Grand Soleil; children’s content including Ninjago, Foot 2 Rue and Peppa Pig; and news channel franceinfo.

Prime Video subscribers already have access to other streaming services for an additional fee, including HBO Max, Paramount+, Ciné+OCS, Universal+ and MGM+.

“With this unprecedented distribution method, our group is taking a historic step forward in strengthening the visibility of its public service offering, enabling all audiences to rediscover and discover the unique richness of france.tv in new environments,” said Delphine Ernotte Cunci, president and CEO of France Télévisions.

“We are constantly looking for new ways to expand the range of quality content offered to our customers and confirm Prime Video as the number one entertainment destination,” said Christophe Deguine, general manager of Prime Video in France.

The move comes after the French pubcaster’s free-to-air rival TF1 recently signed an ‘unprecedented alliance‘ with Netflix to allow all the latter’s members in France to watch TF1 channels and on-demand content from TF1+ on the platform.

France Télévisions and TF1, alongside fellow French broadcaster M6, had previously teamed up to take on the likes of Netflix and Amazon via the collaborative streamer Salto. However, the service was axed in 2022 following the collapse of a merger between TF1 and M6, much to the dismay of Ernotte Cunci, who last year repeated calls to launch a “common platform” similar to Freely in the UK.