Streaming platforms in France

arte.tv is the French-language edition of the Franco-German public cultural broadcaster ARTE, run by the Strasbourg-based ARTE GEIE. It aggregates live feeds, documentaries, European arthouse cinema, classical and contemporary concerts and stage recordings, with a strong editorial bias towards continental affairs and long-form investigative journalism. Every programme is free, ad-free and funded by French and German public budgets.

Canal+ is the flagship pay-TV channel of France’s Canal+ Group (owned by Vivendi) and has been setting the pace of French cinema and sports broadcasting since 1984. The streaming app wraps together in-house Créations Originales, theatrical releases shortly after their cinema window, Ligue 1, Top 14 rugby, Premier League and Formula 1. A base subscription can be extended with the Ciné Séries, Sport, Cinéma or 100% Canal+ thematic packages. Regional offshoots, including CANAL+ in the Czech Republic and Poland, run their own editorial lines.

France 24 is the international news channel of France Médias Monde, the French state-owned broadcaster. On air since December 2006, it runs non-stop bulletins in four languages (French, English, Spanish and Arabic), supplemented by analytical magazines, debates and long-form reporting that tends to focus more heavily on Africa, the Middle East and Europe than most Anglo-American competitors. Streaming is free and available globally through the website and mobile apps.

france.tv is the streaming and catch-up platform of France’s public service group France Télévisions. One app covers the live feeds of France 2, 3, 4, 5 and the digital channel Slash, the franceinfo news stream, a deep on-demand library that includes signature drama like Dix pour cent or Fais pas ci, fais pas ça, and live coverage of the major sporting events France Télévisions holds rights to, from Roland-Garros to the Tour de France and the Olympics. The service is free, funded by French public budgets, and largely restricted to France.

M6+ is the streaming platform of France’s Groupe M6, launched in May 2024 as the successor to 6play. It carries live streams of every channel in the group (M6, W9, 6ter, Paris Première, Téva, Gulli) alongside an on-demand library of more than 30,000 hours. The standard M6+ tier is free with ads, while M6+ Max (4.58 €/month) strips advertising and adds early access to selected drama. Around 20 million monthly users make it one of the busiest catch-up services in France.

Molotov TV is the French IPTV service launched in 2016 and acquired in 2024 by US operator FuboTV. It aggregates more than 80 French channels live and on catch-up (TF1, France Télévisions, M6, BFM TV and others), with cloud DVR and time-shift on the paid tiers. Three plans are offered: a free Molotov tier, Extra at 5.51 €/month and Grand Cinema at 18.39 €/month, which layers premium film channels on top. Registered accounts sit above 13 million.

RMC Sport is the sports streaming service of France’s Altice group, launched in 2016 as SFR Sport and rebranded to its current name in 2018. It was, for several seasons, the main French rights-holder for the UEFA Champions League, but those rights moved to Canal+ for the 2024/25 cycle. The current offering centres on UFC (which RMC Sport has distributed in France for years), boxing and selected European football rights. Pricing is either month-to-month or a discounted twelve-month commitment.

TF1+ is the streaming service of France’s Groupe TF1, launched in January 2024 to replace the older MYTF1 and MYTF1 MAX apps. The free, ad-supported tier carries the live streams of TF1, TMC, TFX and TF1 Séries Films alongside an on-demand library of more than 15,000 hours. A paid Premium tier strips out ads and adds early access to selected drama. With roughly 33 million monthly users, TF1+ has become the most-watched catch-up service in France.

DAZN is a sports-first streaming service built to compete with traditional pay-TV sports channels. The schedule shifts dramatically from country to country: in Germany it carries the Bundesliga and Champions League matches, in Italy it owns the majority of Serie A, in Japan it runs baseball and boxing. The global side of DAZN remains its combat sports division, where it has become one of the biggest buyers of marquee boxing pay-per-view events.

Netflix didn’t invent streaming but it set the rules everyone else now plays by. With 325 million paying subscribers across 190 countries and a stable of shows like Squid Game, Stranger Things and Wednesday, it still defines what mainstream streaming looks like. Recent pushes into live sports and ad-supported plans show the company is willing to bend its own playbook when the market demands it.

Amazon Prime Video lives inside the wider Prime bundle, so streaming is only part of what you’re paying for. The content mix is unusual: splashy originals (The Boys, The Rings of Power, Reacher) sit next to a huge catalogue of movies available to rent or buy and a growing set of optional add-on Channels. Prime has also turned into a heavyweight in live sports, from Thursday Night Football to Champions League in select markets.

Disney+ is the one place where Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic live under the same roof, plus the general-entertainment arm Star. Launched globally in November 2019 and in the Czech Republic in June 2022, it keeps things simple with two ad-free tiers: Standard (Full HD, two streams) and Premium (4K HDR, Dolby Atmos, four streams). Annual billing knocks roughly two months off the price.

Max is Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempt to keep everything important in one app: HBO’s prestige catalogue, the DC Universe, Warner Bros. theatrical slate and the reality-heavy Discovery library. The product still leans on HBO’s reputation for Sunday-night event TV (Succession, The Last of Us, House of the Dragon) but the expanded library means there is something for almost every household.

Apple TV+ takes the opposite approach to almost everyone else: no licensed back catalogue, only original productions. The result is a comparatively small library where misses are rare and hits like Ted Lasso, Severance, Slow Horses and For All Mankind have picked up Emmys. A single tier covers 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos, and the service is bundled into Apple One for households already invested in the Apple ecosystem.

Paramount+ gathers the Paramount Pictures film vault, CBS prime-time drama, Nickelodeon kids programming and MTV reality into one subscription. The backbone is the Taylor Sheridan universe (Yellowstone, 1923, Lawman: Bass Reeves), with Star Trek carrying the sci-fi side and South Park providing the decades-old evergreen. In select regions the service also carries NFL games and UEFA Champions League, blurring the line with traditional sports packages.