A bogus reprieve. The president of public broadcasting, Delphine Ernotte, indicated this Friday, January 20, her desire to “give up Salto” during an extraordinary central social and economic committee (CSE). But the subscription video-on-demand service (SVoD), which has around fifty employees, does not currently have a serious buyer. Dissolution, barring a reversal of the situation, therefore appears inevitable. After just over two years of existence, the platform is about to leave the scene at the top of its game, with a rather decent number of subscribers (nearly a million at the last count, its record) and the equivalent to 3.5% of SVoD consumption in France. Admittedly, these figures are not comparable to those of the American video streaming giants Netflix, Amazon or even Disney, which between them have almost 70% market share in France. But Salto, created by TF1, M6 and France Télévisions, progressed month after month.
What was Salto missing? Certainly no ambition. Originally, the platform saw itself as a “European champion who would weigh on the world stage”. It leaves a bitter taste as its failure has been recorded for a long time. As soon as the project was mentioned in the finance law for 2019, the rapporteur Jean-Pierre Leleux (ex-senator LR) expressed his doubts vis-à-vis a service which then presents “no guarantee of attractiveness (no specific budget to develop creation)”. A criticism that turned out to be quite fair; investments reached a maximum of 135 million euros (with an extension of 250) for Salto against 17 billion dollars, for example, for Netflix alone in 2021.
Not enough to produce series and exclusive films at the height of the leader of the sector to which he asked several years before reaching profitability. As a symbol, in addition to these structural flaws, Salto officially landed on our televisions in October 2020 after missing a dark but rich period for video streaming, namely the first confinement of the Covid-19 pandemic. And to top it off, without being distributed by the telecom operators Orange, Free and SFR.
“Absurd investment”
What followed was no picnic. The long soap opera of the TF1-M6 marriage (since abandoned) has meanwhile distilled a slow poison within the SVoD service. Competitors did not ask for so much. The pressure on French customers has increased further in 2022 with the arrival of Paramount +, Universal + and the “Pass Warner” offer by Prime Video (Amazon) which had already won the Ligue 1 football championship. forget the launch of Netflix’s subscription with advertising, two euros cheaper than Salto (5.99 against 7.99 euros), which won more subscribers in one month (December) than the French platform in its entire life . With fewer and fewer new customers to entice, the skies soon darkened over the streamer. Especially since the catalog remained limited, barely saved by the presence of the saga Harry Potterfrom the special episode Friends or returns of the famous series Sex in the City and A Very Back.
Even the stakeholders were, it seems, prepared for failure. TF1 and M6 have already propelled their independent pay offers, MYTF1 Max and 6play Max at much more reasonable prices (2.99 euros the first year then 3.99 euros). Fallback solutions that are mainly accompanied by technical features (HD, replay available over 30 days, etc.) more than exclusive content. As after each divorce, now remains to do the accounts.
According to The echoes, the losses would reach a total of 200 million euros. Senator Roger Karoutchi, special rapporteur for credits dedicated to public broadcasting in the Senate Finance Committee, criticized this week an “absurd investment” on the part of the public service. The landscape of French-style SVoD is gloomy to say the least. OCS, in the process of being taken over by Canal +, has just lost its main attraction, namely the rights to the HBO catalog (Game of Thrones, Succession, The Wire…). However, the encrypted channel appears to be the only one capable of offering a solid alternative to American platforms. Salto, he will still have tried.