France Télévisions will give up its shares in the Salto project. If the merger between TF1 and M6 is approved by the regulators, the audiovisual group will leave its shares to its two partners.
Salto, the French streaming service that dreams of rivaling Netflix and Disney+, will have to do without France Télévisions. In a press release published this Thursday, March 14, 2022, the audiovisual group announced its intention to sell its stake “in the event of the completion of the project to merge the TF1 and M6 groups”.
In May 2021, TF1 announced the purchase of 30% of the shares of M6 for the sum of 641 million euros. Thanks to this major merger, Bouygues, parent company of the TF1 group, hopes to compete with streaming services from the United States, such as Netflix or Disney+. France Télévisions apparently revealed its intention to abandon ship as soon as the merger was announced.
France Télévisions will abandon Salto
If the merger takes place, the TF1 and M6 groups undertake to “buy out the 33.33% stake of France Télévisions for a final value of 45 million dollars”. The three current owners of the Salto service have apparently signed an agreement in this direction.
Currently, all three players own an equal share of the streaming service. In the event of the sale of the shares of France Télévisions, the new entity, described as a monster by Xavier Niel, would then hold 100% Salto. The abandonment of France Télévisions should allow the future entity owned by Bouygues to accelerate its offensive on streaming.
As specified, the fate of France Télévisions within the Salto project is suspended from the merger of TF1 and M6. According to the latest news, the merger project must still be authorized by the Competition Authority, the market regulator, and Arcom (French public authority for the regulation of audiovisual and digital communication).
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A decision should be made by the end of the year. “Salto will remain jointly controlled by its three shareholders throughout fiscal 2022 to continue the development of the platform”, summarizes the joint press release of the three groups. We tell you more about the future of Salto as soon as possible. While waiting for more information, do not hesitate to give your opinion in the comments below.
