France Télévisions hits record engagement at Roland Garros 2025

France Télévisions, the French public national television broadcaster, is the country's leading TV group with five national channels and a robust digital platform, france.tv. As the official broadcaster of many major sporting events in France, the company faces the ongoing challenge of retaining its broadcast audience while adapting swiftly to digital viewing habits.

The 2025 edition of Roland-Garros will go down in history—not just for what happened on the clay, but for what happened off-court as well. Tennis fans witnessed one of the greatest finals of all time, but France Télévisions pulled off its own ace: a record-breaking broadcast and streaming performance that brought every moment of the tournament to fans like never before.

The challenge: modernizing coverage of a 134-year-old tournament

Heading into Roland-Garros 2025, France Télévisions confronted several critical business challenges:

Youth engagement: How to attract a bigger share of the critical 12-25 demographic, who’s accustomed to turn to YouTube and social platforms for sports content?

Platform fragmentation: Viewers expected access across multiple devices and platforms simultaneously

Content monetization: Traditional broadcast models were struggling to capture digital advertising revenue

Competition: Services like Twitch and YouTube were setting new standards for interactive sports viewing — with the added advantage of being digital-native.

"We needed to transform our approach to tennis coverage without sacrificing our editorial standards or broadcast quality. The younger audience was simply consuming sports differently, and we had to meet them where they were."

—Nicolas Vinoy, Deputy Head of Sports, in charge of Digital Services at France Télévisions.

Wildmoka's solution: serving fast, interactive content

1. Simultaneous multi-court streaming

Wildmoka's Live Studio enabled the distribution of à-la-carte live streaming across all 16 tournament courts, giving viewers unprecedented choice in match selection: they could choose any match, anytime on any court—empowering fans to watch their preferred players, in segments that wouldn’t necessarily air on traditional TV. The team used Wildmoka to process video feeds from Whisper (the tournament's technical operator) while adding France Télévisions' own commentary, graphics and interactive elements.

2. Real-time social content creation

Leveraging Wildmoka's Clip Studio, the team produced highlights and social media content almost instantaneously during live matches, including:

• Top points from each match
• Best-point compilations
• Game summaries
• Daily recaps

These assets were immediately distributed across France Télévisions' owned & operated platforms and social channels—maximizing reach and long-tail monetization.

3. Interactive 24/7 channel

The centerpiece innovation of this 2025 edition was france.tv Roland-Garros, a dedicated round-the-clock digital channel, the distribution of which was powered by Wildmoka's Channel Studio. Operating throughout the tournament (May 19–June 8), the channel featured:

• "Second window" content not featured on the broadcaster’s linear TV channels
• Live chat functionality where viewers could interact with commentators 
• Behind-the-scenes content filmed with off-the-cuff authenticity
• Commentary from both tennis professionals and social media influencers

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"Wildmoka's Channel Studio was the game-changer. We operated a full digital channel starting with three staff members per shift, down to one single staff member in the last week—compared to 30 for traditional broadcasts. This efficiency allowed us to extend coverage far beyond what was economically viable before,"

—Skander Ben Attia, Head of Engineering, Support Process and Media Factory at France Télévisions.

Wins all around

The result of all these modernization efforts? Groundbreaking wins for France Télévisions:

All-time high viewership: Over 46 million French viewers across TV and digital platforms—an all-time high.

Youth engagement captured: More than 5 million viewers aged 15–24 (+8% vs 2024)

And specifically for the digital performance: 

Digital consumption: 82 million video views across france.tv, ISP & OTT (+70% vs 2024)

Social reach: 415 million views across social networks (+130% vs 2024)

Interactive engagement: 7 million unique viewers on the digital channel Roland Garros TV, with 2 million live chat users (28% participation rate)

Peak concurrent viewership: 269,000 simultaneous viewers during the final match point

Production efficiency: 90% reduction in required staff for the digital channel compared to traditional broadcast

"The numbers speak for themselves, but what truly excites us is how we've reconnected with younger audiences without cannibalizing our traditional viewership. Wildmoka's platform allowed us to have the best of both worlds"

—Nicolas Vinoy 

Building on the success of france.tv Paris 2024 and Roland-Garros 2025 channels,  France Télévisions already plans their next step: the launch of a new digital channel dedicated to the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. The "Fan Zone" feature will enable live chat interactions with specialists. This digital channel will continue through the French Alps 2030 Winter Olympics, becoming a permanent part of france.tv's sports offering, providing 24-hour coverage of major events.

A new benchmark for sports broadcasters in the streaming era

France Télévisions' innovative approach with Wildmoka establishes a new benchmark for comprehensive sports broadcasting in the streaming era. The strategy proves that global broadcasters can successfully adopt social media engagement strategies without sacrificing editorial control or migrating audiences to external platforms. And by maintaining content on proprietary platforms, they can preserve advertising revenue and viewer data.

Want to do the same? Wildmoka’s tools—already trusted by market leading broadcasters such as France Télévisions, Canal+, Warner Bros Discovery / Eurosport, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, beIN Sports, and others—can help you reach more fans, boost engagement, and earn more on every screen. Contact us to learn how.