Salto faces November closure

Salto, the French streaming platform jointly operated by TF1, M6 and France Télévisions, could close before the end of the month.

The three partners are due to meet before the end of the month, reports La Figaro. During the meetings, public and private broadcasters will need to decide whether they will continue to finance the two-year-old operation or withdraw and concentrate on their own activities.

Officially, no decision has been made at TF1. However, late last month it was reported that Rodolphe Belmer, the company’s newly appointed CEO, wanted to remove the commercial broadcaster from Salto. That might also have been the case if its merger with M6 had proceeded. M6 itself tells La Figaro it doesn’t have a pre-determined strategy.

That leaves the public broadcaster France Télévisions, where last December Delphine Ernotte refused to rule out selling the organisation’s stake.

Salto has around one million subscribers, paying between €7 and €13 per month. In itself not a poor showing, but dwarfed by the 10 million subscribers held by Netflix in France.

A sale might be an option, but that would require an output deal from the shareholders that would potentially eat into audiences of their own streaming platforms.