Advanced Television

France: Molotov Channels boost for AVoD, FAST

May 12, 2023

From Pascale Paoli-Lebailly in Paris

French OTT hybrid broadcasting and streaming platform Molotov, now a subsidiary of US group Fubo TV, is stepping up its AVoD and FAST TV activities with the launch of new brand, Molotov Channels.

Set to replace AVoD current offering Mango on May 15th, the new bouquet will deliver ten thematic channels (Cinéma, kids, Docs, Sport…) and five FAST TV nets (Baywatch, Starsky & Hutch, Un gars, une fille, Blood and Culture Pub) with the aim of growing its audiences and ad revenues.

“The launch of Molotov Channels confirms the AVoD potential in France, when mixed to an aggregated offering,” stated Founder & Chief Executive Officer Jean-David Blanc, as Molotov is based on both a premium and freemium business model based on advertising. “They will give viewers and advertisers the ideal combination between the public’s linear viewing habits and the assets of digital advertising,” he suggested.

Molotov, which has concluded several new exclusive partnerships in order to grow the available library to 10,000 hours, including 2,000 movie hours, will also distribute original content from this summer exclusively in France. The new content will come from the partnership inked in the US by Fubo and Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort Productions.

The platform isn’t ruling out enriching the new portfolio with third-party independent FAST channels by the end of 2024.

“The approach will be selective so as to aggregate around 40 channels,” advised Grégory Samak, managing director.

Molotov has announced it will support this strategy with the creation of Molotov Advertising network, which will mix its own ad inventory with those of partnering FAST TV channels.

This ad agency model is based on the Fubo TV strategy developed in the US and is “a first in France” according to Béatrice Leroux Barraux, Molotov Advertising ad revenues director.

The new ad service is also set to give greater opportunities to launch new event channels or branded content networks rapidly, within 72 hours.

Molotov claims 379.000 paying subscribers registered at the end of March 2023 out of 22 million accounts created so far. Its VoD and FAST offering is said to attract an almost similar percentage of men and women, with 54 per cent of them aged between 15 and 49 years old.

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