Salto, the 'Netflix à la française', died at twenty-nine months

Salto was France's answer to Netflix: a streaming platform held by the country's three biggest broadcasters — France Télévisions, TF1 and M6 — with TF1 and M6 owning the two-thirds between them. It took nearly five years from the first declarations of intent to the launch on 20 October 2020, and the stated goal was a million subscribers within a year. The competition authority cleared the alliance only under conditions: the channels could not promote Salto on air ahead of their own replay platforms, and a monitor was stationed on site from the start, approving decisions.

The goal was never reached. Subscribers rose from 200,000 in January 2021 to about 700,000 a year later, then slipped — by the end, the paid count excluding trials was estimated at 555,000, while the shareholders' own release spoke of nearly a million. The platform lost about six million euros a month, and the cumulative deficit reached 85.6 million according to L'Informé's figure cited by Télérama. The promise of French originals went unkept — the exclusives were mostly American — and at launch Salto was already behind Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

The exit plan was not a business plan but a merger: TF1 and M6 were to combine, and the new entity was to buy out France Télévisions' 45-million-euro stake. When the merger was abandoned in September 2022, the shareholders said the conditions to continue no longer existed — citing complex, constrained governance and the refusal of most internet providers to distribute Salto like the American platforms. Dissolution was announced on 15 February 2023; the service went dark on 27 March. France Culture's Superfail podcast gave the failure its own episode: 'Salto, la plateforme qui fait flop.'