The date is not yet set, but LeStream’s stop is well recorded. The Webedia group will end the broadcast of webTV on Twitch, revealed Télé-Loisirs. Confirmed with Tech&Co by various internal sources, this decision was made due to a drop in viewership since early 2021. Contacted by Tech&Co, Webedia has yet to respond.
Launched in February 2017, the project consisted of offering programs around video games, including debate or current affairs. All made by content creators. But today, the broadcast landscape has changed and viewers are turning more directly to the cameramen’s channels than to these collegiate structures.
Webedia is still on sale
Above all, several economic issues explain the closure of the LeStream channel. First, Webedia was put up for sale a year ago by Fimalac, which owns almost all of its capital. If Vivendi showed interest in October 2022, the progress of the negotiations is still awaited.
So, the strategy of the brands (and therefore of the advertisers) no longer seems to correspond to the webTV proposal. Despite its daily meeting “Le récap”, the channel has not managed to create an audience peak interesting enough to monetize its programs.
Elimination of the morning schedule
Especially since Webedia produces two successful shows on the Twitch platform: Zen and Popcorn. The latter, run by streamer Domingo (Pierre-Alexis Bizot), also regularly exceeds 50,000 viewers on average, according to the TwitchTracker site.
At the end of 2022, Webedia had already tried to limit the transmission costs of the LeStream channel. This strategy materialized in the suppression of the morning schedule and the incorporation of retransmissions of programs at the beginning of the afternoon.
As of next month, investments in advertising content will cease, specifies Télé-Loisirs. As for the LeStream broadcast, it should continue until June.
Source: BFM TV
