The long agony of the Salto platform, once supposed to be a “French Netflix”, might soon end with its disappearance, expected for weeks but which now seems imminent.
Launched in October 2020 and owned equally by France Télévisions, TF1 and M6, Salto announced on its homepage on Monday that it was no longer taking new subscribers.
An announcement accompanied by what looks very much like an epitaph: “Thank you to all Salto subscribers for sharing with us their desire and their enthusiasm for a Made in France streaming platform”.
From a source familiar with the matter, formal announcements on the future of Salto might be made “by Wednesday evening”. Asked by AFP, France Télévisions, TF1 and M6 declined to comment.
A dissolution would not be a surprise: the future of the platform has been compromised for months and the abandonment at the end of September of the marriage between TF1 and M6, to which France Télévisions had to resell its share to complete its budget.
In November, a source familiar with the matter had told AFP that TF1 and M6 wanted to leave the capital of Salto, confirming information from La Lettre A. Then on January 20, the third shareholder, France Télévisions, had announced its disengagement from the platform during an extraordinary central social and economic committee (CSE).
– Confusing strategy –
Before that, the investigative site L’Informé had revealed that only a Spanish company, Agile, was a candidate for a takeover of Salto in its entirety.
Salto employed 42 people on permanent contracts and 8 on fixed-term contracts in mid-January, for an estimated number of subscribers of around 800,000. The subscription cost 7.99 euros per month (or 5.80 for a subscription taken over one year).
If the disappearance of the platform is confirmed, its employees might find positions in the shareholder companies, from which some of them also came.
Beyond the failure of the TF1/M6 merger, Salto suffered from a confused strategy and multiple obstacles, in a market dominated by American giants like Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime Video.
On the catalog side, the platform supposed to promote the “radiance of French and European audiovisual creation” was distinguished by some pretty exclusives coming straight… from America, with in particular the program “Friends, reunions” or the sequel from “Sex and the City”.
It also offered many reruns or previews of programs produced by its shareholders, such as the daily soap operas of TF1 (“Here everything begins”, “Tomorrow belongs to us”) and France 2 (“Un si grand soleil”).
– Retard –
But TF1, M6 and France Télévisions have also developed their own online platforms, which have competed with Salto by offering some of its programs free of charge and by offering more and more online previews.
Similarly, TF1 and M6 have each launched a paid subscription streaming service without , for 2.99 euros per month the first year, then 3.99 euros per month, which is less expensive than Salto.
The latter also suffered from a delay in ignition: announced in 2018, it took more than a year for this unprecedented project bringing together private channels and public service to receive the green light from the Competition Authority, the file having passed through the hands of the European authorities.
The launch, scheduled for the first quarter of 2020, had been postponed to the fall, therefore following the rise of Netflix and the arrival of Disney + during confinement.
The constraints imposed on shareholders by the Competition Authority, particularly in terms of supply, have represented an “obstacle course”, assured the Senate two years ago the boss of M6, Nicolas de Tavernost. “We are doing everything so that it does not work”, he had launched.
Finally, Salto might hardly compete in terms of financing, with 135 million euros invested by its shareholders, far from the billions disbursed by Netflix and others.
