As we told you last month, Twitch, the platform dedicated to gamers a few years ago, is starting to interest more and more people, including the traditional media. After French politicians, the media are now trying to find their place on Twitch.
An article in Le Monde explains that French media outlets such as TF1, Arte and France Télévision, as well as print media titles, are trying their hand at Twitch. But why?
A new target audience to conquer
On January 21, France Télévision launched its first Twitch live, inviting viewers to ask all their questions about the Covid-19 vaccine. Samuel Etienne, accompanied by a health expert, lends himself to the live game. Samuel Etienne is no stranger to the exercise, having hosted a morning press review since December 2020. In this first for France Télévisions, he tries to mix the codes of TV with those of Twitch. As the flagship of this evolution, France Télévisions naturally chose to build on Samuel Etienne's success on this social network.
And the gamble paid off! The first live stream attracted up to 18,000 viewers, placing it in the top 5 on Twitch worldwide! Thanks to this exercise, France Télévision was able to reach an audience of young people, disconnected from television.
Having learned to master Facebook, Instagram and, more recently, Tik Tok, it's only natural that news channels should want to try their hand on this platform. But Twitch and its community are not easy to seduce. The key words for success on Twitch are authenticity, relaxation and exchange. Indeed, viewers are free to interact, to "correct" you, to ask questions, etc. You need to have a strong backbone to hold your ground, and you also, and above all, need to find the right tone. On Twitch, it's hard to sound right.
The platform's users, who range in age from 18 to 35, warn the media nonetheless: " We don't want to see on Twitch what we ran away from with traditional television. We don't want to see a 24-hour news channel, for example, we really don't like that."
So, will our media be innovative and find their place in this new Eldorado? The future will tell!
