The success of the catch-up TV platform launched less than two years ago has certainly met expectations. Last December it alone attracted 2.5 million visitors and according to Médiamétrie/Netratings more than 20 million of its videos have now been watched, and between them, Groupe M6’s websites were visited by no fewer than 12.4 million unique visitors that same month.

M6Replay.fr

Thanks to M6 Replay, “M6’s content is present on all emerging platforms: PCs, the Internet, IPTV, services offered by Internet access providers. What’s more, the same will soon apply to connected TV”, Gerfaud said. He then went on to point out that “many people said that M6 Replay would cannibalise M6’s audience, but very comprehensive studies show that the more people watch M6 Replay, the more they watch M6. It’s a slightly younger audience, especially on PCs, but from a socio-demographic point of view one that is nonetheless pretty close to the channel’s audience”.

So how can this service be converted into money? When this question was put to him, Valéry Gerfaud explained that while M6 Web’s business model is based on advertising, the company also has other sources of revenue: “Advertising is a major source, accounting for over 50% of our earnings. We also have a pretty diverse source of revenues via our price comparer Achetezfacile, for which we are paid every time users click through to a dealer. On top of that, we have a syndication and distribution model like the one we apply with the some distributors of M6 Replay or with M6 MSN Actu. Finally, our model is transactional, like the one we have with our partner Habbo. This generates revenue for us every time users download or purchase virtual merchandise on the Habbo website”, he concluded.