French media regulator the CSA has rejected moves to take TF1-owned news channel LCI, M6-owned entertainment channel Paris Première and Canal+-owned documentary channel Planète+ to free-to-air status, crushing TF1’s hopes of taking the news channel in particular off the struggling digital-terrestrial pay TV platform. In coming to its decision, the CSA said it had studied […]
Canal+ is launching a new channel for the African market, A+. The channel will offer a diet of African and international content, with 80% of programmes reportedly to be made in African and the remaining 20% coming from the Caribbean or the US. At launch the channel will offer a mix of programmes, about 40% […]
French pay TV operator Canal+ has lost its legal case against Al Jazeera’s BeIN Sports for alleged unfair competition and has been ordered to pay legal costs. The Nanterre commercial court threw out Canal+’s suit, filed in July last year. The pay TV operator had claimed €293 million in damages for unfair competition. Canal+ was […]
Overseas pay TV operations and domestic free-to-air channels lifted Canal+’s full-year operational and financial results despite the flat performance of domestic pay TV in 2013. Canal+ added 249,000 net subscribers in the year to December, taking its total to 10.4 million taking a total of 14.7 million services. The increase was wholly attributable to overseas […]
Netflix has approached several French internet service providers with a view to striking carriage deals ahead of the subscription VoD service’s likely launch in France in September, according to local reports. Orange is seen as the most likely candidate for any agreement and is at the most advanced stage in negotiations, according to a report […]
Al Jazeera-owned French sports broadcaster BeIN Sport has acquired the rights to the World handball championships for both men’s and women’s events for the 2015 and 2017 competitions. International Handball Federation president Hassan Moustafa and beIN Media Group CEO Nasser Al-Hhelaifi signed a deal at the IHF’s HQ in Bâle, Switzerland. beIN Sport will be […]
France’s competition regulator has given a green light to Canal+ Overseas’ acquisition of a 51% stake in Mediaserv, the main alternative telecom operator in Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana and Reunion. Canal+’s overseas media unit is taking over the stake from existing owner Groupe Loret. According to the group, the acquisition will enable it to diversify […]
Formal antitrust proceedings to examine programming agreements between US studios and European pay TV broadcasters are underway and could ultimately be extended to include other distributors, the European Commission confirmed today. EU spokesman Antoine Colombani told DTVE’s sister publication TBI this morning that the focus of the rights probe is currently restricted to the Hollywood Studios […]
Canal+ Group has launched Canalstart, a new incubator fund to support young entrepreneurs in media and new technology. The fund will focus in particular on audiovisual-related projects including enhanced user experience, interactivity and recommendation, projects that assist with customer retention and loyalty, social TV and mobile applications. Projects can be submitted via a dedicated website, […]
Canal+ Group has begun advanced deployment testing of the new software it co-developed with technology provider Wyplay, based on the open source Frog By Wyplay service. Frog has allowed Canal+ to develop an HTML5-based graphical UI, develop partnership with third-party software suppliers and build a range of applications and interactivity on a wide range of […]
