Disney+ and M6 sign a deal on hundreds of French episodes

Disney+ and M6 have signed a content deal in France. Several hundred episodes of shows from the French broadcaster will move onto the streaming service. The two companies announced it on 3 September.

Scènes de ménages arrives on Disney+ on 25 September

Two M6 shows go up first, on 25 September: the comedy Scènes de ménages and the family series En Famille. Two more follow in early 2027, the dating format Mariés au premier regard and the game show The Power. The episodes will appear in batches rather than all at once, and they stay available on M6 as well.

Disney+ has done the same with ITV, Rai and RTVE

This is not a one-off. Disney+ already runs similar arrangements with ITV in Britain, with Atresmedia and RTVE in Spain and with Rai in Italy. In each case the streaming service fills its catalogue with local shows people already know, instead of paying to make them.

For M6 the trade is reach. The broadcaster says it wants viewers aged 15 to 34, a group that watches less scheduled television every year. Karl Holmes, who runs Disney+ in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said M6 has made shows French audiences “really love”.

Broadcasters stop treating streaming rivals as rivals

A few years ago a big free-to-air channel putting its best formats on a paid streaming service would have looked like surrender. Now it reads as distribution. M6 chairman David Larramendy framed the deal as a new model that can work for both sides.

Public broadcasters are moving in the same direction with their own apps. ZDF added more than 15 themed channels to its streaming app this week, keeping viewers inside its own service rather than sending them elsewhere. M6 has taken the opposite route and rented its shows out.

More places to buy French television ads, and cheaper ones

For media buyers the practical question is where the audience for these shows ends up. Disney+ sells advertising on its cheaper tier, so an M6 hit can now be bought in two places with two different sets of targeting data.

Prices for streaming keep moving, and not only downwards: Apple TV raised its US price to $14.99 a month in August. Services that add well-known local shows have an easier time asking for more. Some are cutting costs at the other end instead, as RTL did by making a court show with artificial intelligence.