France’s M6 buys from HBO Max, preps original drama & eyes “novelty” competition shows

Hacks

French broadcast group M6 has picked up HBO Max show Hacks and unveiled a raft of original programming as it looks to entice viewers across its channels and streaming services.

The group’s top priorities were revealed at a press briefing yesterday in Paris by content and channels director Guillaume Charles, who pointed to the development of M6’s primetime line-up and upgrading its 6Play offering as key focuses, while also strengthening the group’s smaller channels.

M6 has also picked up exclusive rights for NFL Sunday matches for its digital platform 6Play and has an adaptation of Be-Entertainment’s reality adventure gameshow Destination X in the works, with ITV Studios France producing.

“In today’s competitive market, there is an obligation to offer more novelty – that’s what our audience is asking for,” Charles said, pointing to the success of travelling format The Traitors, which he said “looked like nothing else” before it.

For that reason, the broadcaster is not interested in the current reboot trend but M6 is introducing new shows including adaptations of photography celebrity competition show The Perfect Picture, BBC format Back In Time For School, produced by Warners, and The Big Job Switch. The latter is another Be-Entertainment format, which is also being produced by ITVS France.

Drama focus & smaller channel shift

The channel will also have more event-driven French original drama coming, although not enough to fill a weekly strand, but has commissioned more ambitious shows with greater casting, exploring topics such as the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks with Les Espions De La Terreur.

In sports, it has picked up rights to the Women’s football World Cup together with France Télévisions and also confirmed making a bigger foray into documentaries.

There is also room for new shows in primetime on M6, following the shrinking number of US series over recent years.

“Not so long ago, we had two-and-a-half weekly primetime strands, now it’s barely one,” Charles said, adding that fewer US shows had been marketed over recent years but moreover they had become too narrow. Nevertheless, the channel announced it has acquired NBC drama The Thing About Pam and taken FTA rights to Nine Perfect Strangers, starring Nicole Kidman.

The group is also looking to strengthen the image of its smaller channels. Paris Premiere will become more abrasive than ever, while women channel Teva is looking to address feminism and the Metoo movement, and has also acquired HBO Max series Hacks.

More reality TV is also being lined up to launch on W9, which has a great role to play in building younger audience loyalty and as a bridge with digital, said M6. Despite very poor TV audience performance, it has not taken any decision yet regarding the renewal of Love Island, which did well among the very young and on 6Play.

Meanwhile kids channel Gulli has picked up Transformers among new international animation series, is developing its primetime family line-up, including with gameshows which proved popular among kids, and its AVoD offer in buying specific rights.

Spending increase

To fund these developments, M6’s programming budget is set to grow, although the broadcaster did not reveal by how much. Receiving the greater share of these increases will be digital platform 6Play, with AVoD development becoming a top priority for the group.

M6 said that some of its shows, such as reality, now get 50% of their audiences on digital, with Pekin Express for instance adding one million viewers in catch-up.

The broadcaster added that one out of three viewers use 6Play for something other than catch-up, prompting the decision to develop more original programming, with a couple of format adaptations and creations last year.

Beside the exclusive rights to 18 NFL games that will go live on 6Play same time than their US broadcast, 6Play also reached several agreements with US majors, including for some scripted shows and an extensive Bachelor deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. It also launched about 20 FAST channels.

M6 said that overall it is now looking for its new TV shows to be more “streamable”, meaning more serialised, in order to build a 6Play audience too.