Talks between Orange and the Canal+ group have ended without an agreement to create a premium pay section on the streaming video site Dailymotion.
Orange has been talking to possible investors in Dailymotion in order to beef up its content to better face competition with YouTube on the one hand, and with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu on the other. Even encouraged by the French government, Orange entered into negotiations with Canal+ and Microsoft to create a premium platform. These talks have now ended without a deal, according to Les Echos.
The newspaper reports that talks between Orange’s Stéphane Richard and Canal’s Bertrand Meheut were amicable, but the two differ on the future strategy of Dailymotion. Canal wanted to turn the portal into a fully fledged competitor to Netflix, which is set to enter France before the end of the year, while Orange wants to keep Dailymotion as a free-to-view alternative to YouTube.
Since March last year, Orange has been looking for one or more partners in the video web portal, but last May Yahoo! has had to give up its attempt to acquire a controlling stake in Dailymotion after the government intervened.
