Netflix Takes First Steps Towards Global Cable

There was a piece in the Financial Times recently decrying the lack of a monocultural connection as one of the things currently dividing populations; the implication being that siloing oneself entertainment-wise leads to siloing oneself politically. The writer was talking about the U.K., of course, but the same could be argued for the U.S., where Netflix shattered what was a system wherein everyone benefited, from series creators to small-time actors to audiences. However, once the great unbundling occurred, viewers quickly realized that subscribing to each app individually was way worse than having excess cable channels, and since then, the race to be the first to provide the best rebundling has been on.

But today's news upends the board. Across the pond, down on the continent, France's TF1 network (one of the few successful commercial networks in the country) has signed an agreement to be streamed via Netflix.

Thus far, the great rebundling has not been all that exciting, but rather a sense of reassembling pieces of a well-worn puzzle. The Disney/Hulu/Max package, for example, is essentially the House of Mouse giving us an app version of what is now known as a "skinny cable bundle," while the Peacock/Netflix/Apple TV+ bundle is Comcast offering an alternative version of the same concept. Note that the second group offers Netflix as part of the Comcast channel lineup; that's because, until December 2024, Netflix had never successfully pulled off live streaming.

Netflix never wanted to be another channel in a bundle like it is in the Comcast deal; it was forced into accepting that because it couldn't offer such a thing. Netflix has said from the beginning that the goal is to replace television, wholesale. It started in America because it was an American company, but since 2020, the push for global domination has become the streaming service's primary focus, as it's where the growth in audiences was. 

We've noted here before that Netflix was starting to compete head-to-head with U.K. networks during some of the traditional TV holidays; it has been doing the same everywhere else as well. (Those K-dramas are not just for Americans!)

Finally conquering the technology behind live streaming as it expands into the global market has once again put Netflix a step ahead of its competitors. The deeply American Disney can't even integrate Hulu into its Disney+ service, let alone consider competing in foreign language programming. Amazon Studios continues to be a loss leader for someone's sex life, even if it's not Jeff Bezos anymore. (At least not until his inevitable next divorce.) 

Apple TV+ has only just figured out it needs to market its shows if it wants anyone to watch them. As for Comcast, like Disney, it's deeply American-centric and lacks the imagination to have visualized the possibility of a global cable network until someone else did it first.

TF1 streaming via Netflix will serve as a test case to assess how well the concept works in practice. It's a wise choice of test subject: Big enough to make a splash in a country where Netflix has long struggled to make inroads, but small enough that most people outside of France won't notice. Additionally, it's a commercial network; those are second-run in European countries, where public broadcast networks still dominate, even as things have shifted to streaming. It's why TF1 was willing to make the deal, and because it's not a public broadcaster, the French government won't get involved.

It is also in a market where Netflix can afford to be patient. Although France has some hit programming internationally (Astrid!), it's not a massive market like the English-language one, and Netflix can tell investors to sit tight and see if one of the countries most resistant to change can come around to subscribing.

However, if this succeeds (and Netflix now has a decade-and-a-half-long track record of overperforming in these situations), it won't be long before struggling commercial networks around the world will be lining up to have the streaming service carry them, both in their own countries and globally. Meanwhile, companies like Comcast will likely find themselves on the back foot for a second time in a decade. The great rebundling won't just be the return of the American cable package; it will be the first step in bundling together all the world's entertainment on one platform. Finally, we'll get that global monoculture the world has been missing.