Decryption – For several years now, many television personalities have combined antenna and streaming platforms. For what reasons?
More and more television and radio hosts, recognized and appreciated by viewers, make the choice to digitize and choose to create content on video and audio streaming platforms, such as YouTube or Spotify. Among these PAF personalities, Sophie Davant, Élise Lucet, Jamy Gourmaud or Claire Chazal. “”The challenge today of TV hosts is to touch the community of people who like them ”explains Manuel Diaz, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Influx, Agency for content creators. “”They have every interest in developing programs on YouTube and digital in general and to give free rein to their creativity“, Evokes the leader. But why?
Freest formats
Already, digital content platforms do not have the same constraints as television. The first and not least, the duration. “”TV responds to codes. When a 52 -minute program is entrusted to an animator, he knows that there will be advertising cuts. They participate in the general economy of TV ”, Analysis the boss of Laurent Baffie and Guillaume Pley .
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Then the contents. “”In my opinion, animators who launch on YouTube love TV less. It is an interesting creative complement for them. On digital, they have more freedom and this is similar for them to an oxygen bubble ”he adds. An opinion shared by Bruno Guillonwho also embarked on the YouTube adventure on June 15. “I wondered where I could do the things that I do neither on the radio nor on TV and I thought of YouTube“Said the presenter of the” Z’amours “on France 2, during an interview he had given us. The host has since put online on his channel seven videos.
If indeed, the animators can afford to have a certain freedom on Youtube, it turns out that many of the content published on the website created in 2005 are borrowed from television and then altered. For example, maintenance. In this extremely popular register on streaming platforms, Guillaume Pley is ahead thanks to his Legend channel, whose maintenance is the main format.
For his part, Laurent Baffie, who had a dazzling success on Instagram thanks to his hidden cameras in early 2024, also chose to question personalities from television, cinema, music, etc. First in “to drink and eat” then now in “colonoscopy”. The acolyte of Thierry Ardisson has been holding a video podcast for six months where the principle is simple, and even recalls a lot what the mythical duo did in “Everyone talking about it” and “Hi Terriens”.
They are not the only ones to draw inspiration from television. Bruno Guillon had indicated to us about his next Youtube content: “For example, there is “We know each other” a game derived from “z’amours” with friends».
Freedom of expression and your
Similar concepts therefore, but with the desire to be more authentic and daring. YouTube and digital platforms in general boast of a certain freedom of expression greater than on television. “On Youtube, we are completely free, it looks like a piece of real life where sometimes TV is blocked on certain principles. On brands that cannot be displayed for example. We can tackle subjects as we would in real life ”said Guillaume Pley last May, on the occasion of the coverage of the 2000th number of the TV Magazine.
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For the host of the morning of Fun Radio and “Everyone has their turn” on France 2, it is also a greater diversity in the choice of guests that YouTube offers. “”There are people I want to receive, who are not known enough to come to my radio and TV shows, but who interest me», To Souligné Bruno Guillon.
Freedom also in tone, more “policeOn television, according to the influx designer. “I am always fascinated by the fact that as soon as it turns, people wish. These TV habits exist much less on the digital format“, He describes.
Only on Youtube, as on television, everything cannot be said, although the regulation is different between the two entities. Arch manages television. If a problem is reported by viewers, the authority in charge of the file will conduct the investigation to decide whether or not a sanction, which is often like a warning. Surprisingly, on YouTube, the rules are more strict: after three breaches of the general conditions of use, the chain is closed.
YouTubeur is an entrepreneur, not the television host
By launching on YouTube, the television hosts, who are not necessarily producers, face a new aspect, that of entrepreneurship. Indeed, if they do not use a production company, they are forced to write, turn and set up their program themselves. Manuel Diaz explains: “Digital is a much more entrepreneurial model than TV. When a presenter is on the air, he does not necessarily care about the economy. He only takes care of the audience because there is an advertising management that will monetize this audience. On the digital, the model is a little different. If the youtuber is less audience, thanks to editorial collaborations with brands, he manages to balance his economic model ”.
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YouTube cheaper than television
The means committed to producing YouTube content and a television program are not the same. “Where digital will have a studio, a platform and a director, television will put three times more staff and twice as many cameras“Recalls the director of Influx. The content published on YouTube are necessarily less expensive, although the trend is starting to change. Squeezie recently announced the colossal amount of the budget for an upcoming video on his channel. A historic figure which amounts to 700,000 euros, the concept of which is still unknown.
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Digital mainly saves the workforce. Technicians are less well paid than on television, in part since they do not have the right to the status of intermittent of the show, necessary to perceive the unemployment allowance. They are mainly in “freelance”. Partnerships and sponsors are much higher on television than digital platforms.
The audience match
The myth of the young audience on the Internet is no longer. Thanks to the new remote control buttons, it is as easy today to watch TF1 as to go to YouTube or on Netflix. “The public is no different. For the TV host on Youtube, the challenge is to find a community of interest and especially affinity“, Specifies Manuel Diaz.
Is the public more numerous on digital platforms than on television? The figures are sometimes impressive on YouTube. For example, Guillaume Pley has hundreds of millions of views on all of his videos. The most profitable are those of the interviews with the medical examiner Philippe Boxho. The seven episodes record between three million and eight million views.
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Results far superior to the majority of television programs in 2025. However, can we compare TV audiences and YouTube views? Strictly speaking, no. The results measured by Médiamétrie for television are a precise survey system, calculated thanks to a representative panel of households equipped with a housing called Audimeter, which automatically records the channels watched. With this method, neither the replay nor the viewing via other platforms are taken into account in the results given the day after the diffusion.
Conversely, the YouTube views would be rather overestimated. For a view, just look at only 15 seconds from the video. Nevertheless, the measurement tools are perfected, and it is now possible to have access to more precise information, such as the video time watched, the moment when the person accelerated, paused, when he stopped, etc. Information always not provided in the view of views.
Will TV disappear in favor of Youtube?
The time when television disdained digital is over. Digital is increasingly attracting TV personalities, who sometimes decide to devote themselves entirely. The contents are similar. Television productions are launched, a little late certainly, today on this path. “”We still see initiatives. Banijay (producer of “Koh-Lanta”, editor’s note) announced an initiative to launch some of its programs on YouTube. She made castings for presenters of her flagship programs on the YouTube version“Indicates the influx boss.
Some youtubers also make the opposite path and start on TV. This is the case of Juju Fitcats which became known on the digital platform by creating fitness content. Building on its participations in “Fort Boyard”, “The big competition” and “The traitors”, the young woman won, in 2023, the orders of “France has an incredible talent, it continues” on M6. Since then, the chain seems to see in her an animator since she also entrusted her with the controllers of the second evening of “traitors” and this Thursday, August 7, she co -gelted “99 to beat” with Éric Antoine.
According to Manuel Diaz, the border between digital television is increasingly fine. “These dikes are moving. I think we are going to go more and more towards a complete erasure of these lines and that the user will choose what he is subscribed according to his tastes ”he predicts. TV should therefore not disappear, but transform.
