French startup Molotov provides a TV streaming service in France that replaces the traditional set-top box. You can access live TV, subscribe to premium channels, watch content after it airs, and record content in the cloud. Today, the company is launching a different service, its own ad-supported streaming on demand service, or for short the AVOD service.
Mango contains a thousand films, TV shows, documentaries and children's shows. The company has partnered with copyright holders who want to find a new distribution channel for their content. Partners include Kabillion, Zylo, ACI, FIP, ZED, Ampersand, Sonar, ITV, Mediawan, Trade Media & Dynamic and Crome Films. Molotov cocktail is also negotiating deals with Sony Pictures, Endemol, Lionsgate and Wild Bunch.
"Today there are no legal and free cinema offers [in France]"Co-founder and CEO Jean-David Blanc told me.
The result is a library of content that you can watch whenever you want from the Molotov app. Mango's content is accessible from a dedicated hub. You can also find content when you browse categories or search for something in the app.
You will find some obscure movies but also some well-known names, like Sex therapy with Marc Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow, Suspected with Morgan Freeman and Monica Bellucci, e The perfect weapon with Steven Seagall and Bruce Lee.
When it comes to advertising, the company has put together its own sales team. They want to sign deals with traditional TV advertisers and content creators. The idea is that you will receive a movie trailer (or a teaser for a new Netflix show, for example) before your movie. Next, you'll get some commercial breaks in the middle of your movie with ads for various products.
When Molotov doesn't have a sufficient inventory of internal ads, the company partnered with the third-party ad network FreeWheel. Ads will be tailored to your profile and ads you've already seen. They are inserted directly into the server-side stream, which means it will work on all platforms that currently support Molotov, from mobile apps to connected TVs.
If Mango works well in France, Molotov plans to expand its AVOD service to other European countries in the near future. And it makes a lot of sense to start with such a service, as TV distribution deals are incredibly boring.
With 13 million users, Molotov already has a comfortable audience to get started with Mango. Arguably, it could quickly become the most successful ad-supported streaming service in France.
