France’s M6 lands Prime Video show, spins ‘The Traitors’ for soon-to-launch streamer

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

French broadcaster M6 has lined up Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, an original MMA contest format and an additional version of The Traitors for its soon-to-launch streaming service, M6+.

M6 presented its plans for the new, mostly AVoD, platform to press and advertisers last night, ahead of a launch date set for mid-May.

The service will revamp the current BVoD efforts of 6Play, following a similar move at TF1, which launched TF1+ two months ago.

M6+ spending & acquisition plans

A €40m ($44m) investment in M6+ is planned this year, growing to over €100m by 2028, with the group promising 30,000 hours of content, including 10,000 hours available exclusively.

M6’s chairman, Nicolas de Tavernost, was in attendance at the launch ahead of his planned retirement on 23 April, following a 37-year stint at the broadcaster.

David Larramendy (Source: M6)

“I’m so happy to conclude my time with the presentation of M6+, this is the future,” he said. “Streaming is not a sprint, it is a marathon and today, we are accelerating. But traditional TV is far from dead – we intend to walk on our two legs,” he stressed.

Tavernost’s successor, current sales director David Larramendy, said the “goal” is to double the 2023 consumption – 500 million hours viewed – to 1 billion, while tripling revenues from €74m to €200m.

M6 is counting on RTL Group’s dedicated subsidiary Bedrock to develop innovative technology, partly based on AI, and while M6+ is mostly AVOD, a premium subscription offer will be available at €4.99 for those who want the service ad-free. Kids platform Gulli will remain separate.

M6+ plans ‘very ambitious’ content strategy

On the content front, the group’s channels & content director Guillaume Charles said he is planning a “a very ambitious strategy.”

One focus is to ensure “linear programming [is] streaming-ready,” he said, pointing to shows such as L’Amour Est Dans Le Pré (Farmer Wants A Wife).

It averages 4.7 million viewers per episode, with 1.1 million of those on the digital platform already, while Temptation Island, which is broadcast on a smaller channel, gets over 60% of its 1.1m viewers on 6Play.

With that in mind, the group confirmed it had picked up the Golden Bachelor format for a French adaptation on M6.

M6+ will also offer more previews, making some M6 scripted series available on the platform first for a month, prior to their M6 broadcast.

Original programming will also be increased, including commissioning of shows targeting the streamer’s younger demo, with The MMA Academy contest an example of an original unscripted project.

It is to be produced by Satisfaction’s Ah Production, while an additional The Traitors series is also in the works, which will include younger influencers as contestants. M6+ is planning to launch around three unscripted formats in total.

Les Traitres (Source: All3Media)

M6+ will also offer original documentaries, along with shows experimenting with new narratives and comedy series, with new talent being sought.

The streamer is acquiring around 300 films as well as some US series in exclusivity, looking especially for SVOD platforms’ second windows such as the deal for Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Some shows may run on M6 although Charles told TBI that was not the main purpose of the deals.

Amazon has been increasingly looking to sell its Prime Video originals, with Warner Bros. Discovery last month taking two flagship unscripted shows – The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm – for its linear networks in Europe.

An agreement has also been reached with NBCUniversal for the group’s reality series, offering about 4,000 hours of content, including the Kardashian franchises. The platform will also run some American football games from the NFL.

M6 also has a daily soap – a genre that build platforms loyalty – in the works, thought details are scant. With increased competition, the broadcaster is focusing on bigger moves and is prepared to increase spending.

This more aggressive approach was underlined by a major coup confirmed this morning, when M6 took World Cup football rights away from TF1 for 2026 and 2030.