The Senate recommends that France Télévisions withdraw from the Salto platform


Louise Bernard, with Alexis Patri

Senator Roger Karoutchi points out in a report the lack of success of Salto, the streaming platform common to the TF1, France Télévisions and M6 groups. Launched in October 2020, the latter was intended to be a tricolor competitor to the American giants Netflix and others.

Salto does not take off. The paid streaming platform launched by TF1, France Télévisions and M6 is struggling to find its audience. In this context, the Senate recommends that France Télévisions withdraw from the project launched in October 2020. Senator Roger Karoutchi, author of the report on the subject, estimates that the number of paying subscribers to Salto at the end of 2021 was only 397,000 people. For comparison, MyCanal had 8.68 million subscribers. Salto does not compete with the American giants at all, as was its original objective. But it is therefore no match for the French platforms either.

Will France Télévisions have to resolve to sell its shares in Salto? Yes, if the merger between TF1 and M6 takes place. A strategy recorded since the end of March in a joint press release between the three owners of the platform. But the Senate report goes further. He recommends that the public group resell its shares, even if the merger fails.

European public services platform project

He pleads for a rapprochement between France Télévisions and the other public service media: Radio France, Arte, France Médias Monde. A rapprochement to create a common digital platform, which would be called “France Media +”.

The senator acknowledges that it would not be a question of competing with American streaming services. Their investments in billions are far too large compared to those of the public service. On the other hand, he thinks that the creation of a platform common to all European public services could make it possible to defend “the European cultural exception”.



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