France Télévisions to close down its recently launched app France TV Zoom and will reconsider its digital strategy.
The French public broadcaster will focus on social media, video platforms and the set-top boxes of the operators. The end of support of its France TV Zoom app comes just eight months after its launch. The app allowed viewers to compile their own virtual channels using content from the broadcaster.
France TV Zoom was aimed at the 18 – 34 age group, and won praise of many critics, but apparently failed to attract sufficient traction to warrant continuation of the project, in which a number of tech parties took part.
The pubcaster does also no longer believe in smart TVs and HbbTV, according to local reports. So it might be just a matter of time before apps for these services will also be terminated – or at least put on a slow burner.
Meanwhile, according to research by Médiamétrie/Netratings, France Télévisions is not doing very well with online video. Last February, the broadcaster attracted 5.2 million unique viewers, compared with 5.4 million for its privately owned rival TF1.
Both broadcasters lag far behind digital players Youtube, Dailymotion and Facebook with respectively 25.6, 16.8 and 14.1 unique viewers.
