Canal Plus expected to post healthy profit increase
French pay-TV operator Canal Plus is expected to record a decent rise in revenues and profit when parent company Vivendi reports second-quarter results tomorrow.
Nick Bell at investment bank Jefferies International is forecasting a 2.7% uptick in revenues of 1.17bn and 20% increase in EBITA profit of Â245m  largely attributable to lower football rights costs as it has fewer games and favourable comparables after a large outlay on marketing in the second quarter last year.
Vivendi is expected to report overall second quarter revenues of about Â6.8bn. The company will also receive US$2bn (Â1.6bn) next month after selling its stake in NBC Universal to General Electric.