Under fire from critics, threatened with a departure from France Télévisions – one of its co-founders – and accused of exaggerating its number of subscribers, Salto is not really in great shape. Against all odds, his salvation could come from the TF1-M6 merger.
Times are tough for Salto. Despite a succession of nice moves, in particular the cataloging of the meeting Harry Potter, the French platform is struggling to make a name for itself, more than a year after its creation. Internally, dissension is felt, especially on the side of France Télévisions, one of the co-founders who, through the voice of its president Delphine Ernotte, raised the idea of abandoning the ship. The same Delphine Ernotte estimated not long ago “around 700,000” the number of subscribers to the service.
Since then, Salto has been beaten by the magazine Capital in a particularly violent article which denounced a catalog not as complete as expected and claimed that only 500,000 customers had joined the platform at present. Far, underlined our colleagues, from the objective set at one million for the end of 2021 by the teams of the service.
While it was she who had cast doubt on France Télévisions’ participation in the project in the long term, the merger between TF1 and M6 could ultimately represent a solid way out for Salto. In view of the rapprochement between the two giants of the PAF, their main actors are currently being heard in the Senate. The opportunity for them to explain their projects and their inclinations, but also to evoke several collateral points. Present this Thursday, January 27 in front of the elected officials, the CEO of Bertelsmann, Thomas Rabe, spoke in favor of the French platform.
Salvation on the other side of the Rhine?
As a reminder, Bertelsmann is the majority shareholder of M6 and will therefore have a key role to play after the potential merger – although the Bouygues group will remain the main shareholder of the new entity. However, as its boss reminded us, the German group has had several successes in terms of streaming, particularly in its own country with TVNOW then RTL+. Projects that have managed quite easily to exceed one million subscribers. For Thomas Rabe, the trio of shareholders is an obstacle to the development of Salto, and negotiations are thus underway to simplify its capital structure. With or without France Télévisions, which we suspect of working on a platform common to several European public service groups, it is difficult to say.
Before the Senate, the representative of Bertelsmann went so far as to quantify the investments of his group in SVoD at around 500 million euros, without however specifying where exactly this capital would go. On the side of Salto, we want to believe in this lucky German star. In any case, Thomas Rabe promoted the synergies and tools available to the French service, whether in terms of the graphic interface or targeted advertising. Still young and a bit in distress, Salto will need a little help to get his head above water once and for all. Even if the most French of platforms takes on a slight Teutonic tint?