M6 open to SVOD partnership with rival

French commercial broadcaster M6 is open to the idea of a subscription video-on-demand partnership with rival broadcaster TF1, according to the company’s president, Nicolas de Tavernost. In an interview with financial daily Les Echos, De Tavernost also said M6 should successfully grow its advertising revenue this year to better reflect its audience share.

Following comments made by TF1 CEO Nonce Paolini last week that he was interested in launching an SVOD service and that a revival of discussions with M6 could be “an interesting idea”, De Tavernost told Les Echos that scale was central to the success of this type of service and that he was open to the idea of a partnership. He said this would be the best way to stave off the threat presented by the arrival of international service providers in the French market. M6 has already launched its own Pass Séries M6 SVOD service, which De Tavernost said had signed up some tens of thousands of subscribers to date.

De Tavernost said that M6’s key objective this year was to grow its share of the advertising market, pointing out that the flagship M6 channel currently had a 20% share compared with TF1’s 43% share, a gap that was not justified by the difference in their audience shares.

De Tavernost said that investment in programming this year on the M6 channel would be in line with last year, while the company would continue to increase its expenditure on the W9 channel by about 20%.