The M6 television group has just presented its brand new free video streaming service: M6+. Entirely financed by advertising, it will replace the 6play platform in May and will directly compete with TF1+.
The world of video streaming is preparing to welcome a new kid! While, after the shutdown of the Salto platform that it co-managed with M6 and France Télévisions, TF1 launched its own SVOD, called TF1+ (see our article), its long-time great rival is preparing to make one even ! M6 – which brings together the TV channels M6, W9, 6ter, Paris Première, Téva, Série Club, but also Gulli, Canal J, TiJi, MCM, MCM Top and RFM TV, the radio stations RTL, RTL2 and Fun Radio, film and television production and distribution companies, an advertising agency, websites, music publishing and show production companies, etc. – are preparing to do the same. The news was announced last February through Nicolas de Tavernost, its current CEO, in an interview at Figaro. The latter also took the opportunity to announce his departure from the channel – he will be replaced by David Larramendy, current head of the Advertising department, from April. Called M6+ – if we had any doubt, here is proof that it really is about competing with TF1! –, it will replace the current 6play replay platform “before Euro football 2024”, which is due to begin on June 14, according to information communicated by the audiovisual group. As a bonus: a search engine powered by AI which should appeal to viewers. An asset to stand out from the competition!
M6+: an advertising-financed streaming platform
We already know that M6+ will be a completely free SVOD service, financed by advertising. It will offer a paid plan at 4.99 euros – the TF1+ Premium subscription is 5.99 euros per month or 59.99 euros per year – allowing you to remove advertisements, be able to download content and enjoy previews . The catalog of programs will be doubled compared to what we know with 6play, reaching 30,000 hours of content – twice as much as TF1+.
“We are going to double our catalog of programs, with more than 300 cinema films per year (blockbusters but also major sagas), with 300 cult American series or from paid platforms and which we make free (for example The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), with reality series since we signed a partnership with NBC-Universal ( The Kardashians Or Real Housewives), without forgetting the youth offering with 250 brands, mainly animation. But also documentaries like Balance your networks Or Life to the limit“explains Guillaume Charles, member of the management board in charge of programs and content, to West France.
To stand out, the M6 group also intends to highlight its podcasts on the platform, including exclusive content again. We will thus be able to find, only on M6+, a spin-off of the show Traitors with influencers, a reboot of reality TV Who wants to marry my son ? or MMA Academy, where young fighters are trained. And that’s without counting the “offbeat” six-minute weekly news provided by the satirical site Le Gorafi. Good news in addition, M6 has just recovered the broadcasting rights for the 2026 World Cup. It will therefore broadcast all the matches in the clear of the competition, which will take place in North America (United States, Canada and Mexico).
M6+: an innovative search function with AI
Compared to 6play, M6+ will offer much more attractive functions, including for free accounts. Thus, it will be possible to enjoy replays for at least thirty days after their broadcast, compared to around a week currently. It will also be possible to cast and watch HD content for free, although this is a paid function on 6play, as well as having several profiles on the same account.
A few months after its launch, M6+ will offer a search engine using generative artificial intelligence. “We could, for example, ask him for a cartoon of less than twenty minutes for a seven-year-old child or to find the scene where Lois and Clark kiss“, explains Guillaume Charles. “This will be a world first.” Another example: it will suffice to write: “I want to watch a film that lasts less than 1 hour 30 minutes with my seven year old daughter” for the algorithm to provide a recommendation. Bluffing!
The SVOD will also be equipped with a “fan experience”which will allow“display a whole bunch of statistical data on the screen“, during the broadcast of sports competitions or tele-hookups. “We want to make M6+ more social, in particular with vertical videos or even interactions on streaming programs via social networks”he summarizes.
M6+: the ambitious objectives of the audiovisual group
“Our objectives are clear: at least double consumption on the platform with 1 billion hours consumed and triple streaming revenues to reach 200 million euros by 2028,” explained Nicolas de Tavernost in February. The group is therefore targeting 1 billion hours consumed in streaming and revenues reaching 200 million euros in this sector by 2028. Ambitious objectives, especially in a market largely occupied by American giants, which continue to arrive in our regions, and already invested by TF1. M6 decided to launch into streaming because it noticed an increase in replay. In 2023, out of 9.4 billion hours of M6 group programming consumed, 500 million were in replay. But this choice also corresponds to a drop in television advertising revenue and an increase in the same market for online video.
New incarnation of the concept of FAST TV – in good French, “free streaming television financed by advertising” (see our article) – the economic model of M6+ is very different from the offer of major American platforms such as Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video, which only offer paid subscriptions. And it could well appeal to many users, who no longer want old-fashioned linear television, with its imposed schedules, but who do not want to spend several hundred euros per year on paid streaming platforms. Not to mention that the latter now include advertising in their cheapest offers, as evidenced by the new Netflix and Disney+ subscriptions – and soon Amazon Prime Video. The catalogs will make the difference. And consumers will decide.