Groupe Canal+

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Groupe Canal+
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryMedia
Founded1983; 41 years ago (1983)
Headquarters
Issy-les-Moulineaux
,
France
Area served
France
Key people
Jean-Christophe Thiery
(President)
Maxime Saada
(Chairman and CEO)
ProductsPay TV
Television production
Film production & distribution
Revenue€5.16 billion (2018)
Number of employees
7,739 (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
ParentVivendi
Subsidiaries
Websitehttps://www.canalplusgroup.com/
Footnotes / references
[1]

Groupe Canal+ is a French media and telecommunications conglomerate based in Paris. It is owned and controlled by Vivendi. It is a major source of finance for domestic film production, participating in the financing of the vast majority of films produced in France. It also has its own subsidiary companies with direct involvement in film production, such as StudioCanal.

Apart from extensive operations in mainland France, the company owns many subsidiaries, and operates in countries across Europe, Africa, the Asia-Pacific region, and in French Overseas Territories.

History[edit]

André Rousselet, president of the French multinational advertising company Havas, was the founder of the subscription channel Canal+ in November 1984, when there were only three government-owned channels available. It got off to a slow start, and some politicians, including prime minister Laurent Fabius, railed against the idea of having a commercial TV channel. However, Rousselet was a personal friend of the president, François Mitterand, and so obtained favourable terms for the setup. Pierre Lescure was director-general at that time. A combination of political connections and clever programming – giving the French public American hit comedies and French drama not available on the government channels – worked and subscriptions soon increased. Government regulations required that the channel give several hours of free programming each day, which was used by Canal+ to promote the subscription service.[2]

In January 2000, it was announced that French arms and media conglomerate Lagardère Group had purchased a major stake in the digital television division, taking 34 percent of CanalSatellite and nearly 27.5 percent of MultiThematiques, for a price of more than US$890 million. Lagardère acquired the 30.2% MultiThematiques stake then held by Vivendi.[3][4]

From 2000 to 2002, Virginie Calmels successively held three positions: chief financial officer, deputy CEO, and then joint chief operating officer of the group.[5][6]

In September 2015, Vincent Bolloré, chairman of parent company Vivendi, was appointed as chairman of Canal Plus. He changed several former executives and aligned Canal+'s operations with Vivendi's.[7]

Canal+ Hi-Tech was a private television channel in France dedicated to the broadcasting of films in 16:9 aspect ratio and HDTV. Canal+ 16/9 changed its name to Canal+ Hi-Tech in March 2005. Through this change, the channel offered the latest technological advances in terms of image and sound, especially with high-definition programs. The channel was deleted when switching Canal+ to the 16:9 format.[citation needed]

Canal+ 3D was established on 10 June 2010, to broadcast some matches of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 3D. It regularly broadcast films or sporting events of Canal+ in stereoscopic 3D format.[citation needed] It stopped broadcasting on January 24, 2012.[8]

Description[edit]

Groupe Canal+ is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, in the suburbs of Paris. It has a film library in excess of 5,000 films.[9]

The Wall Street Journal described Canal+ as "the French film industry's biggest financial backer, beloved by French cineastes".[10]

It is a major source of finance for domestic film production, participating in the financing of the vast majority of films produced in France. It also has its own subsidiary companies with direct involvement in film production, such as StudioCanal.[11]

Corporate divisions in France[edit]

Canal+[edit]

Main article: Canal+ (French TV channel)

The flagship brand of the organisation is Canal+, a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is encrypted for most of the day, and viewers who wish to watch the channel's more popular programming (new-release movies and live sport) must subscribe to the service. Previously this involved the purchase of a decoder to decrypt the signal, but increasingly Canal+ is being offered as part of a multi-channel satellite or cable television package (known as CanalSat in France).[citation needed]

Canal+ (provider)[edit]

Main article: Canal+ (French TV provider)

Formerly Canal Satellite Numérique, a pay satellite and IPTV distributor (as CanalSAT DSL). Canal+ is a satellite TV package launched in 1992 as an extension to the original Canal+ analogue channel.[12] A merger between CanalSat and its main competitor TPS started in 2007, and finally canceled by the Competition Authority in 2011.[13] With Canal+, the utilization of the card pairing (QEV) technology allowed access to many channels such as, Eurosport, Paris Premiere or LCI.[14]

This pay TV platform also served as the basis for many of its international equivalents, including in Spain (Canal Satélite Digital), Italy (Tele+ Digitale) and Poland (Cyfra+), mainly during the late 1990s and early 2000s, with these versions sharing similar decoding technology and set-top boxes.[citation needed]

StudioCanal[edit]

Main article: StudioCanal

StudioCanal is a production company formed in 1988, associated with NBCUniversal until 2011.[15] Nowadays, StudioCanal is operating in several countries such as Germany, Japan, or Australia.[16] For the movie industry, it is a major player at the European level.[17]

StudioCanal announced in 2011 that it would spend €200 million a year on movie production, establishing its position as "the first port of call outside the U.S. for intelligent upmarket movies" such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which is fully financed by the studio.[18]

Thema[edit]

Thema is a Canal+ Group company that oversees distribution of Pay TV services in various countries, and is the parent company of channels including Novelas TV and Nollywood TV. Thema was founded in 2005 by François Thiellet, and acquired by Canal+ in 2014.[19]

International operations[edit]

Past operations[edit]

Movie Network, an Australian premium television service launched in 1995, was founded as a partnership between Canal+, HBO (a subsidiary of Time Warner), The Walt Disney Company, MGM/UA and Village Roadshow. A few years later, Canal+ dropped out of the partnership.[when?][citation needed]

Canal Plus was the first cable TV channel to operate in Brazil, in 1989. It operated on the MMDS system and broadcast part of ESPN programming. Its Brazilian operations were sold to Grupo Abril in 1991.[20][21]

Canal+ International[edit]

Canal+ International [fr] is a subsidiary of the group. By 31 December 2023, it had 6.6 million subscribers in over 50 countries across Africa, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and French Overseas Territories in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean regions. As of 2024 Canal+ International also produces over 100 channels for international distribution.[22]

On 15 November 2017, Quebec cable system Videotron began carrying Canal+ International, marking it the first provider to carry the channel.[23] It is also the second attempt at making Canal+ available in Canada since the former paid Canal+ Canada channel on Dailymotion, launched in 2013.[24]

As of August 2018, Canal+ International is on U.S. satellite provider DirecTV in HD on channel 2010.[citation needed]

Africa[edit]

Canal+ Afrique was launched as Canal Horizons in 1991, initially broadcasting mostly in Tunisia and Senegal.[25] By the end of 2023, it had 8.1 million subscribers.[22] In July 2014, the launch of a new pan-African TV channel - A+ - was announced. Based in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), it aimed to become the leading television company in French-speaking Africa.[26]

The Canal+ Group has other activities in Africa as well as the Canal+ Afrique service; by 2018, the whole group's offerings including over 200 channels, radio stations, and other services, while the Canal+ Afrique's platform offered more than 50 channels.[27] On 30 June 2023, the Canal+ Group bought 144.2 million shares (32.6% of the capital) in the South African subscription provider MultiChoice, which, with 20 million subscribers, is the market leader in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa. Their main competitor on the continent is the Chinese-owned StarTimes; however, estimated audience shares by 2028 are 32 million for Canal+/MultiChoice and 19 million for StarTimes.[28][29]

Canal+ Ethiopia was launched in 2021.[30]

Europe[edit]

Canal+ has previously been present in several other European countries such as Spain, Italy (as Tele+), and the Netherlands as early as 1990, but as of 2016 it was only active in Poland and France, due to many of these divisions being sold to other companies such as Sky Europe and Movistar.[citation needed] Canal+ began returning to European markets outside of France and Poland in 2022 as a streaming service, in countries such as Austria, Czechia, and Slovakia.[citation needed]

Canal Plus came to the Nordic countries in 1997, acquiring the two FilmNet-channels and renaming them. The Nordic part was sold in October 2003 to the Telenor-owned Canal Digital, and the Canal+ brand was used under license until 2012, when the channels were re-branded C More Entertainment.[citation needed]

Canal+ Poland is CANAL+ Group's second largest base in terms of number of subscribers, with 3 million.[22]

Canal Group bought M7 Group in 2019, which has expanded its presence in Europe, which now includes distribution brands in Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. M7 is also intending to produce content for broadcast in Europe. The CANAL+ brand now exists in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Netherlands.[22] In addition, as of 2024 the group owns SPI International, which operates TV channels and digital platforms in many countries, and 29.33% of Swedish streaming service Viaplay.[22]

Canal+ Czechia and Slovakia was launched on 28 February 2023 as a streaming service.[31]

FilmNet in the Netherlands was rebranded as Canal+ in 1997.[32] In 2005, the channels were bought by Liberty Global and renamed Sport1 and Film1 in February 2006.[33] Sport1 changed its name to Ziggo Sport Totaal in November 2015,[34] Film1 was sold to Sony Pictures Television in the same year.[35] In April 2019 was announced by Sony that Film1 would close on 1 August 2019;[36][37] however, it was sold to SPI International instead,[38] which was fully acquired by Canal+ in August 2023. Canal+ was reintroduced in Netherlands as a streaming service on 20 January 2024.[39]

Canal+ Luxembourg (former M7 Group) is a Luxembourg-based television provider which operates several direct broadcast satellite pay TV platforms: HD Austria in Austria, Télésat in Belgium and Luxembourg, TV Vlaanderen in the Flanders region in Belgium, Skylink in Czech Republic and Slovakia, Canal Digitaal in the Netherlands, Focus Sat in Romania, and Direct One in Hungary. It also operates a terrestrial pay television platform in Flanders, Belgium and offers B2B multimedia services. Canal+ acquired M7 Group for 1.1 billion euros on 12 September 2019.[40][41]

Past involvement in European services include:

Asia-Pacific[edit]

In May 2009, K+ founded by Canal+ and VTV was launched. K+ brings national level satellite TV service and OTT service to Vietnamese households, offering five premium and exclusive channels,[42] up to 170 SD channels and HD channels across genres: sports, movies, general entertainment, news, music, and documentaries.[43][22]

Canal+ Myanmar, originally launched by Forever Group as 4TV in 2006, became a joint venture with Canal+ Group in 2017.[citation needed] Canal+ has been operating in Myanmar in collaboration with Forever since 2018.[22]

In June 2023, CANAL+ partnered with PCCW to expand the streaming service Viu, which serves Asia and the Middle East, and in February 2024 CANAL+ increased its stake in Viu to 30%.[22] Also in 2023, CANAL+ also partnered with the Onati group to broadcast its content in Polynesia.[22]

French Overseas Territories[edit]

Canal+ Group has 800,000 subscribers in the French Overseas Territories, with CANAL+ International's subsidiaries operating in the Caribbean (Antilles, French Guiana, and Haiti); the Indian Ocean (Réunion, Mayotte, and Mauritius) and the Pacific (New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia).[22]

Channels in France[edit]

  • Canal+ Cinéma(s) – premium TV channel devoted to movies
  • Canal+ Sport – premium TV channel devoted to sports programmes
  • Canal+ Kids – premium TV channel devoted to family programming
  • Canal+ Docs
  • Canal+ Grand Écran
  • Canal+ Foot
  • Canal+ Séries – premium TV channel devoted to series
  • Canal+ Sport 360 – premium TV channel, delayed broadcast of Sport from Canal+
  • Canal+ Box Office
  • Ciné+ – set of six thematic cable television channels
  • Comédie+ (formerly Comédie!) – cable TV channel devoted to humorous programs
  • CStar Hits France – cable TV channel devoted to musical programs
  • Foot+ – cable TV channel devoted to football
  • Rugby+ – cable TV channel devoted to rugby football
  • Golf+ – cable TV channel devoted to golf
  • Infosport+ – cable TV news channel devoted to sports
  • Piwi+ (formerly Piwi) – cable TV channel devoted to children programs
  • Planète+ – cable TV channel devoted to documentaries
  • Planète+ Adventure – cable TV channel devoted to documentaries from A&E Networks channels
  • Planète+ Crime– cable TV channel devoted to crime documentaries
  • Polar+ – subscription streaming service, featuring many foreign TV series[44][45][46]
  • Seasons – cable TV channel devoted to documentaries
  • Télétoon+ (formerly Télétoon) – cable TV channel devoted to animation
  • Teletoon+ (formerly Minimax/ZigZap) – cable TV channel devoted to animation broadcast in Poland
  • MiniMini+ (formerly MiniMini) – cable TV channel devoted to animated series for children from 3 to 8 years in Poland
  • CNews (formerly i>Télé) – free-to-air news channel
  • C8 – free-to-air channel
  • CStar – free-to-air channel devoted to musical programs
  • MyCanal – free streaming service for Canal+ subscribers to stream the channel's programming live and on-demand
  • Canal+ International – international French premium channel featuring programming from Canal+ and its various other channels

Past divisions[edit]

Former channels[edit]

See also[edit]

  • High Above, a book about the development of the satellite company SES

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Rapport annuel document de référence 2018" (PDF) (in French). Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  2. ^ "Canal Plus". Encyclopedia.com. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  3. ^ Williams, Michael (13 January 2000). "Lagardere group to take stake in Canal satellite". Variety. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  4. ^ "LAGARDERE and CANAL+ Announce Alliance in Digital TV". Lagardère - Lagardere.com - Groupe. 12 January 2000. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Virginie Calmels: Executive Profile & Biography". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  6. ^ "Virginie Calmels joins the Assystem Board of Directors" (PDF). Assystem.com. 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2017. She then joined the Canal+ group where she successively held the positions of Chief Financial Officer, Deputy CEO and joint Chief Operating Officer between 2000 and 2002. S
  7. ^ Keslassy, Elsa (10 September 2015). "Vincent Bollore Shakes Up Canal Plus Management". Variety. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  8. ^ "Canal+ abandonne sa chaîne 3D". ozap.com.
  9. ^ "Mentions legales Archived 2010-03-27 at the Wayback Machine." Canal+ Group. Retrieved on 5 March 2010.
  10. ^ Carreyrou, John; Orwall, Bruce (17 April 2002). "Vivendi Turmoil Rises as Messier Ousts Popular Canal Plus Chief". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ Kuhn, Raymond (4 January 2002). The Media in France. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780203192689 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Camexport. Archived 2014-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ^ "France : Merger of TPS and CanalSat: Competition Authority Pronounces Injunctions". merlin.obs.coe.int.
  14. ^ "CanalSat to offer short-term subscriptions". Broadband TV News. 24 September 2009.
  15. ^ "StudioCanal Sues Universal Claiming Millions in Working Title Film Revenue". The Hollywood Reporter. 28 February 2013.
  16. ^ Hopewell, John (17 July 2012). "Studiocanal buys Hoyts Distribution".
  17. ^ "Vivendi". webzine.vivendi.com.
  18. ^ Adler, Tim Adler (29 September 2011). "Studiocanal Raises More Film Financing: Says It Won't Have To Borrow To Fund Slate".
  19. ^ Dziadul, Chris (29 October 2014). "Canal+ buys Thema". Broadband TV News.
  20. ^ "Em 1989, ESPN chegou ao Brasil como canal UHF e com esportes impopulares". NaTelinha (in Brazilian Portuguese). 25 April 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
  21. ^ Larangeira, Álvaro Nunes; Musse, Christina Ferraz; Thomé, Cláudia de Albuquerque; Tavares, Denise; Silva, Juremir Machado da; Ribeiro, Renata Rezende (1 April 2021). 1969 a 1970: Janelas do Tempo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Editora Sulina. ISBN 978-65-5759-023-2.
  22. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "CANAL+ International". CANAL+ Group. 31 December 2023. Retrieved 16 May 2024.
  23. ^ "Canal+ chez Vidéotron à la mi-novembre". Lesoliel.com. 30 October 2017. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  24. ^ "Canal+ au Canada sur internet via DailyMotion". La Presse. 16 October 2013. Archived from the original on 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018. Les séries, les films et les documentaires du groupe Canal seront accessibles depuis le Canada à compter de mi-novembre...
  25. ^ Williams, Michael (1 December 1993). "Tasca named head of Canal Horizons". Variety. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  26. ^ "Canal+ lance A+ pour le " public familial africain "". Le Monde.fr. 9 July 2014. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  27. ^ "CANAL+ AFRIQUE". SES. 31 July 2019. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  28. ^ Galtier, Mathieu (28 December 2023). "Canal+ in Africa: an aggressive strategy". The Africa Report. Archived from the original on 15 May 2024. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
  29. ^ "Vivendi's Canal+ increases stake in South Africa's MultiChoice to 40.83%". www.cnbcafrica.com. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  30. ^ "Ethiopia/Media: Canal+ ready to take on StarTimes and Multichoice". The Africa Report.com.
  31. ^ "Canal+ expands in Czech Republic and Slovakia". Broadband TV News. 28 February 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  32. ^ Fransen gaan Nederlanders vermaken, Trouw, Dorien Pels, 26 July 1997
  33. ^ "Cookies op AD.nl - AD.nl". Ad.nl. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  34. ^ "Ziggo Sport". Sport1.nl. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  35. ^ SONY PICTURES TELEVISION CLOSES FILM1 DEAL Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Sonypicturestelevision.com, Retrieved on July 26, 2015
  36. ^ Jarco Kriek (30 April 2019). "Film1 stopt lineair" (in Dutch). TotaalTV.nl.
  37. ^ David de Jong (1 May 2019). "Film1 stopt alle activiteiten" (in Dutch). NederlandsMediaNieuws.nl.
  38. ^ David de Jong (2 July 2019). "SPI International neemt Film1 over" (in Dutch). NederlandsMediaNieuws.nl.
  39. ^ "Canal Plus confirms Dutch launch". Broadband TV News. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
  40. ^ "Vivendi's Canal Plus to buy M7 for 1 billion euros to expand its European reach". www.reuters.com. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  41. ^ "Vivendi: strong earnings growth in 2019". www.vivendi.com. 13 February 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2022. Constant perimeter notably reflects the impacts of the acquisition of M7 by Canal+ Group (September 12, 2019), the acquisition of the remaining interest in Ingrooves Music Group, which has been consolidated by Universal Music Group (March 15, 2019), the acquisition of Editis (January 31, 2019), the acquisition of Paylogic by Vivendi Village (April 16, 2018) and the sale of MyBestPro by Vivendi Village (December 21, 2018).
  42. ^ "Kênh mới dành cho thiếu nhi K+KIDS chính thức được lên sóng từ ngày 1/10".
  43. ^ "CANAL+ Group launch new channel package K+ in Vietnam | Media". Campaign Asia. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  44. ^ "Polar+". myCANAL (in French). Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  45. ^ "Canal+ Group's Polar+ takes French rights to Viaplay thriller End of Summer". C21media. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  46. ^ Mitchell, Robert (16 May 2019). "Cineflix Rights Sells ITV, Netflix Crime Drama 'Marcella' to Polar+ in France". Variety. Retrieved 12 May 2024.

External links[edit]

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