France Televisions, M6 and TF1 have officially announced that they are closing their joint venture streaming platform, Salto.
Salto was previously owned by the trio of France’s biggest broadcasters. However, TF1 and M6 both exited the joint venture in November after the French competition authority blocked their planned merger.
Salto was launched in October 2020 as a rival mass-appeal French-language platform to streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video. It included content from 19 different channels owned by the groups, and currently has nearly one million subscribers.
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In a statement, the three French broadcasting groups blamed the collapse of merger between TF1 and M6 for its closure. “Now that this project has been stopped, the shareholders of Salto have decided that the conditions are not met for Salto to continue with its current ownership structure, given the complex and constraining governance arrangements and the refusal of most internet service providers to distribute the platform, as is the case with the American platforms. In addition, none of the expressions of interest in taking over Salto received from a number of industry players could be brought to a satisfactory conclusion.”
They said that subscribers would shortly announce the timetable for the shutdown of the platform and subscriptions.
The three companies added: “France Télévisions, M6 and TF1 groups would like to pay tribute to the exceptional work accomplished by the talented people at SALTO, under the leadership of Thomas Follin, and to express their disappointment at this unfortunate outcome for the French broadcasting industry.”
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