Orange and the Canal+ Group have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the sale of OCS and Orange Studio.
Canal+ thus gets its hands on a bouquet of pay channels distributed on the Internet by French ISPs, channels that the group already distributes elsewhere in its offers (Canal+ has been a shareholder since 2012 with 33.34% of OCS, and is its first distributor). Orange Studio claims more than 200 co-productions and a catalog of nearly 1,800 works.
Competition from American platforms
Born respectively in 2007 and 2008 from the desire of Orange executives to create content for telecom pipes, OCS and Orange Studio have had to deal with the rise of SVOD platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
What reduce their power and their room for maneuver, in a context where Orange must also spend lavishly for Orange Bank and its core businesses – maintaining and developing the fixed and mobile networks of an incumbent operator.
With the arrival at the helm of the company of the new CEO of Orange, Christel Heydemann, refocusing on the telecom business is becoming a priority. And the sale of OCS, a necessity.
Preserve jobs and creation
This acquisition should enable the Canal+ group, which boasts nearly 24 million subscribers worldwide (including 10 million in France and nearly 7 million in Africa) to develop its broadcasting activity and strengthen its catalog of nearly 7,000 titles. .
As part of this sale, Orange claims to want to negotiate with the buyer the sustainability of the “development of these two subsidiaries while preserving jobs and pre-financing creation”.
The operation must still be the subject of an opinion from the Autorité de la concurrence.