Less than three years after its launch in October 2020, Salto, the subscription video-on-demand offer created by France Télévisions, TF1 and M6, will close permanently on Monday.
If the subscription is still active on March 27, it “will be automatically terminated” and the subscriber will no longer be billed, is it specified on the Salto site. Refunds will be made in proportion to the number of days remaining in the current month, or in the current year for the annual offer.
Subscriber data management
In addition, Salto will continue to process its subscribers’ personal data until April 27, when it will delete it. “Only accounting data will be kept”, in particular “the invoices of former subscribers to the platform” integrating their e-mail.
They will be for “10 years from the date of establishment of the invoice (…) in the form of an encrypted archive with the company’s liquidator”to ensure their safety.
The closing of the platform, presented for a time as a “French Netflix”, was announced in mid-February by its shareholders. Salto employed 42 people on permanent contracts and 8 on fixed-term contracts in mid-January. The subscription cost 7.99 euros per month (or 5.80 euros monthly for a subscription taken over one year).
Failure of the merger between TF1 and M6
Its future had been compromised for months and particularly since the failure at the end of September of the merger between TF1 and M6, to which France Télévisions had to resell its share to make ends meet. “This project stopped, the shareholders of Salto judged that the conditions were not met for the continuation of Salto in its current shareholding”had justified France Télévisions, M6 and TF1 in a joint press release.
The shareholders had also pointed out “the complex and constrained governance of this alliance and (the) refusal of most Internet access provider operators to distribute the platform like the American platforms”.
“In addition, the expressions of interest received from several players for the takeover of Salto could not lead to a concretization”they said last February.
The cutthroat world of paid streaming
Salto’s failure to gain enough subscribers (900.000 fin 2022) also demonstrates how difficult it is to survive in the cutthroat world of paid streaming. Salto obviously does not have the financial strength of Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney Plus, which devote billions of euros to their content each year. These American giants also have the advantage of being able to make their large catalogs profitable in many countries.
Let’s also add that Salto has not had it easy, after being imposed significant remedies by the Competition Authority from its launch. This did not fail to disrupt its operation.
(with AFP)