The technology platform that powers the streaming services run by M6, RTL Belgium, RTL Hungary and RTL Croatia is to be opened up to new shareholders.
Groupe M6 is opening up the capital of its technology unit Bedrock, enabling RTL Group – the controlling shareholder in M6 – to acquire a 50% stake. The new partners plan to continue its development and pool investments across Europe.
Bedrock’s capital may further be opened up to other shareholders.
M6 launched its catchup platform M6 Replay in 2008. Its streaming service 6play followed in 2013 with both being developed through what is now Bedrock.
Swede Jonas Engwall leads a group of more than 200 employees. He’d previously been SVP Global Operations Management VOD for RTL and was Head of Asia for iFlix.
From June 2020, the Blackrock platform will also be used by the Salto SVOD service being launched by TF1, France Télévisions and M6. RTL Nederland will also use the technology for the next version of its catch-up and SVOD services, RTL XL and Videoland.
The current transaction is subject to consultation with employee representative bodies.
Source: https://www.digitaltveurope.com/2020/03/16/rtl-group-to-buy-50-of-m6s-bedrock-streaming-platform/