OKAST and Locales.tv have formed a strategic partnership that aims to develop France’s first national streaming and distribution platform dedicated to local TV stations, extending the reach of local media across the country.
On schedule to go live early next year, Locales Plus will launch with 17 founding channels, including TV Vendée, Tébéo, TV7 Bordeaux, Wéo TV, and ATV Martinique, which have formed cooperative company, Écran Local, supported by the Locales.tv federation.
Commenting, Fabrice Schlosser, president of Écran Local (SCIC) and co-president of Locales.tv, said, “By pooling our strengths and partnering with a French company like OKAST, we are laying the foundations of a sovereign ecosystem dedicated to diversity and proximity. Locales Plus is more than just a platform; it’s a collective project to secure the future of local television in the digital age.”
Built around OKAST’s European VoD, live and FAST solutions, Locales Plus features a comprehensive infrastructure across web, mobile apps and connected TVs, allowing direct access to hundreds of programmes from across France. The unified approach aims to ensure uniformity of technical standards and quality and simplify distribution for local operators. Additionally, Locales Plus will leverage OKAST’s suite of editorial, recommendation and analytics tools.
Cédric Monnier, CEO and co-founder OKAST, said, “We are proud to put our technology at the service of French local TV stations. Locales Plus perfectly embodies our mission: to enable every media player, even at a regional scale, to control its distribution, monetisation, and direct relationship with audiences, while remaining sovereign.”
Locales Plus is aligned with the aims of ASAP4EU, a project initiated by OKAST to boost collaboration among European broadcasters, producers and technology providers.
