The Franco-German cultural channel Arte intends to launch a European VOD platform with public broadcasters ARD, ZDF and France Télévisions.
The idea would be to offer the “best of European public channels” in several languages as an OTT service, as explained by its president, Véronique Cayla, before the Senate a few days ago.
The offer will initially include magazines and documentaries, as well as fiction. The service will be offered free of charge to consumers, so the public broadcasters behind the venture will need to food the bill.
At the moment, Arte has its own ‘mediatheque’ in Germany and France, which offers catch-up of its programmes as an OTT service.
Meanwhile, French language international broadcaster TV5 Monde is working on a French-speaking VOD platform, which it hopes to launch in 2020, if the necessary funds can be found to set up such a platform. TV5 Monde is owned by a consortium of French public broadcasters, France Télévisions (49%), France Médias Monde (12.6%), Arte (3.3%), RTBF Belgium (11.1%), Swiss SSR (11.1%), Radio-Canada (6.7%) and Télé-Québec (4.4%).
And, in a completely different context, France Médias Monde (France 24, RFI, etc.) is working on a digital information offer for young people, in conjunction with Deutsche Welle.
In France, France Télévisions is preparing to launch its OTT SVOD platform Salto with private broadcasters TF1 and M6. The project, however, still needs the blessing of l’Autorité de la concurrence, the French competition authority.
