French regulators gave the go-ahead on plans by the country’s broadcasting bigwigs to launch a joint streaming service, Salto, to fight the global giants.
Variety reports that Pubcaster France Televisions has joined hands with its commercial rivals M6 and TF1 on the new subscription platform, which is expected to hit the scene Q1 of 2020.
As if Amazon and Netflix haven’t taken enough hits from domestic broadcast giants, now France is stepping up to compete against international players on their own territory.
And, with more than 5m Netflix subscribers in France, the leaders of the new streaming consortium are smelling the popcorn potential.
“Now that Salto has been approved, we will at last be able to put together Team France in broadcasting,” said Delphine Ernotte Cunci, CEO of France Televisions.
ITV and the BBC have also announced the launch of their “best of British” streaming service, BritBox, later this year.
Netflix has over 130m subscribers in more than 190 countries. As technology gives birth to budding film industries all over the world, the streaming biz only stands to become more competitive for companies like Netflix and Amazon.