Orange announces the complete resale of OCS and Orange Studio to the Canal+ group. The operator’s adventure in the sector ends with the end of its contract with HBO.
The start of 2023 will have been fatal for Orange’s ambitions in the audiovisual sector. The operator has lost access to the HBO catalog and its flagship series for its OCS service, probably leading to terminations.
Only one week after this event, Orange announces the resale of its activities to the Canal+ group.
Canal+ becomes sole master on board
It is therefore both OCS, the pay channel package, and Orange Studio, a film and series co-production subsidiary, which become the property of Canal. The press release is clear: The Canal+ Group will become the sole shareholder of the two companies following this transaction. “.
Orange blames the emergence of ” powerful international platforms for this end of the race, that is to say Amazon, Netflix, Disney + or one imagines it, the Discovery + service which recovers the rights to the HBO series.
The press release does not reveal the amount spent by the Canal+ group for this takeover. The European audiovisual bastion is getting stronger, especially with the takeover of Orange Studio behind films like The Artist Where The Father.
It does not specify either what will be the strategy of Canal+ with its new acquisition, in particular concerning the alignment with the political agenda of the group of Vincent Bolloré.
The Competition Authority on the spot
As with any acquisition of this size, the file must first be validated by the competition authority in France. In 2022, the authority rejected the idea of a merger between TF1 and M6.
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.