"We did not sign an exclusivity with PCCW," said Orange Chief Executive Stephane Richard at a presentation on the group's 2020 strategy. "We want to take a bit of time to evaluate other options."
Orange has been looking for a partner for over a year to help Dailymotion expand internationally to try to compete with much larger rival Google's YouTube. PCCW is an Internet and telecoms giant based in Hong Kong and controlled by tycoon Richard Li, the son of businessman Li Ka-Shing.
In 2013 Orange was in talks to sell all or part of the site to Yahoo but the French government scuppered the deal over concerns that a promising startup getting snapped up by a US giant.
This time around Orange has said it would sell only a minority stake. In early 2014 Microsoft was said to be interested but nothing came of those reports.
In the meanwhile, YouTube is reportedly working on a new video-on-demand subscription model that's similar to YouTube Music Key. The upcoming service is said to be ad-free and include several YouTube Stars under the YouTube Originals channel.
The reported move by YouTube is said to be a result of pressure from competitors like Vimeo, Hulu, Vessel and more, which are working on bringing more YouTube Stars and video makers to host videos on their websites for more attractive advertising revenue and even exclusive retainers.
Written with inputs from Reuters
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