Salto to close unless buyer emerges
January 23, 2023
From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris
France Télévisions has announced it is set to pull the plug on streaming service Salto, jointly created with M6 and TF1, meaning it will close unless a buyer comes forward.
After TF1 and M6’s decision to exit the service in November 2022, following the failure of their planned merger, Salto looks set to shut, little more than two years after its October 2020 launch.
France Télévisions has said there was nothing official as possible takeover bids but it is still open to offers. Only one potential buyer has declared itself, Spanish streaming platform Agile, but Salto’s owners seem unimpressed.
The closure of the platform, which accounts for 800,000 subscribers, also confirms a diverging strategy between the three shareholders. A sale would partially compensate for the loss which have been estimated to € 85.6 million in 2022, around €6 million each month, and around €200 million over two years.