It is a negotiation of almost two years which is coming to an end. Orange and the Canal+ Group have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with a view to the acquisition by the latter of all the titles that Orange holds in the OCS pay channel package and in Orange Studio, the co-production subsidiary of films and series. The Canal+ Group, the main distributor of OCS, will become the sole shareholder of the two companies following this transaction. He currently holds 33.34%.
“Once is not custom, it is the seller, that is to say Orange, who pays money to the Canal + buyerindicate our colleagues from Les Echos. OCS, billed €11 per month alone, has accumulated between €400 million and €500 million in losses since its launch. OCS also wasn’t helped by the launch of HBO’s streaming offering, which saw content such as Game of Thrones, Sex and the City, True Detective Where The Sopranos. However, the new HBO offer is not yet available in France.
OCS now has around 3 million subscribers in France, far behind Canal (9.6 million) or Netflix (13 million). The operation will be the subject of an information-consultation of the employee representative bodies and will be notified to the Autorité de la concurrence.