Pierre Lescure in New Online TV Venture

PARIS: Pierre Lescure, co-founder and former chief of CANAL+, has partnered with Jean-David Blanc, the founder of AlloCiné, and private-equity investors on a new online TV service that promises to "disrupt the current TV distribution offering in the coming months."

The new service, Molotov, is being backed by Idinvest Partners. It was co-created by Lescure and Blanc—whose creation AlloCiné is the leading source of movie information in France—alongside Jean-Marc Denoual, formerly of TF1, and Kevin Kuipers, who worked at AlloCiné, Gamekult and SensCritique.

“The essence of Molotov is to lead the distribution of TV channels and programs in a new direction, better reflecting their quality and diversity, and bring traditional television into the internet era," a company statement said.

The platform, positioning itself as a Spotify-type service for TV, is set to go into beta testing this summer, with a public launch in the fall.