Vivendi's Canal Plus in talks to buy Orange's film and pay TV units - source (updated)

Television Francaise 1 SA

18/11/2022 16:15

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      Vivendi in talks to buy Orange's OCS and Orange
Studio-source
    

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      Deal would need approval by French competition
authority-source
    

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      Canal Plus would gain subscribers, studio production
capacity
    

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      OCS's deal with HBO about to come to an end 
    

  
 (Adds details, background)
    By Mathieu Rosemain
       PARIS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Vivendi's  VIV.PA  Canal Plus
TV arm is in exclusive talks to buy the film and pay TV
operations of Orange  ORAN.PA  in a deal that would allow it to
add nearly 3 million subscribers and close in on Netflix in
France, a source told Reuters on Friday.
    Informal talks between Vivendi's Canal Plus, which already
owns a third of OCS pay TV business, and Orange - France's
biggest telecoms group - have been going on for months.
    In addition to OCS, Canal Plus would also buy Orange Studio,
the content division in charge of co-producing, selling abroad
and distributing select films in France. 
    Orange and Canal Plus declined to comment on the talks,
which were first reported by trade publication Variety.   
    A tie-up would have to be approved by the French competition
authority, said the source with direct knowledge of the talks. 
    The authority blocked a similar deal in 2011, before Netflix
and other streaming services shook up the pay TV market. 
    Netflix  NFLX.O  has about 10 million subscribers in France,
a spokesperson for the video-streaming giant said. 
        Canal Plus had 9.6 million subscribers at end of June.
OCS has 2.9 million subscribers. 
    OCS is France's second-biggest pay-TV service after Canal
Plus. It is known for being the sole distributor of HBO series
in France, including blockbuster "Game of Thrones".
    Other TV series provided by OCS in France include "The
Handmaid's Tale", distributed by U.S. subscription streaming
platform Hulu, and "The Walking Dead" TV series, produced by
AMC. 
    However, the company is loss-making and its multi-year deal
with HBO only has a few weeks left and is not expected to be
renewed, leading some industry observers to play down the
medium-term significance of a deal with Canal Plus. 
    An Orange spokesperson said OCS's HBO partnership would run
out at the end of 2022. This means that HBO, a subsidiary of 
Warner Bros Discovery  WBD.O , would be allowed to seal
distribution deals with other players in France from the start
of 2023.
    An industry source said there was usually a sort of
"inertia" among pay TV subscribers before they realise they are
not getting the same content as before and switch to another
service, adding both companies might be betting on that.
 (Additional reporting by Piotr Lipinski;
Writing by Silvia Aloisi, editing by Mark Potter, Emelia
Sithole-Matarise and Jane Merriman)
 ((sudip.kargupta@thomsonreuters.com;))