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Due to an increase in VAT, Canal+ will increase the subscription price of some of its customers. Subscribers hired for one or two years should not be affected, unlike newcomers.
Maxime Saada, the boss of Canal+. © Sylvain Lefevre – Getty Images
If you subscribe to Canal+, you may have received a letter informing you of an upcoming increase in your subscription. As is often the case with the encrypted channel, the reason is beyond its control… The letter indeed stipulates that this inflation is not arbitrary, but the consequence of a 10 to 20% increase in VAT on some of its formulas.
Netflix and Disney+ have weighed in the balance despite themselves
As reminded The echoes, the channel headed by Maxime Saada had long been calling for a drop in its VAT rate to 5.5%, following a first increase to 10% dating from 2011. The reason given was increased competition from American players such as Netflix or Disney+, yet already constrained to the rate at 20%. But it is precisely these two SVoD services that penalize Canal+.
By mainly attacking digital kiosks — and by extension operators who used this type of application to lower their VAT — in a finance bill dating from 2021, the government had decided to “clarify the VAT rules applicable to composite offers”. Clearly, if an offer distributes other subscriptions at different VAT rates, it must comply with the highest rate.
Only the non-committed are concerned
However, for several years, Canal+ has been moving towards a distribution strategy including in particular Netflix and Disney+ (and why not, one day, Prime Video). By integrating these two platforms while developing its own video-on-demand platform and replay, MyCanal, the encrypted channel has come very close to the model of its American competitors. She is now overtaken by the patrol. As a representative of Bercy pointed out, quoted by The echoesnothing obliged the company to pass on to its customers.
The impact of this measure could cost Canal+ some 200 million euros, and this sum will therefore have to be absorbed by certain subscribers. Only those who have contracted a non-binding subscription will be affected, as well as newly recruited customers. Subscribers committed to one or two years (the majority) will be quiet at least until the end of their contract. It now remains to be seen whether this sudden change in pricing policy (there is talk of a €2 increase for the customers concerned) is not likely to cause a wave of unsubscriptions…