The CANAL+ group will cease broadcasting its four pay-television channels on digital terrestrial television in France from June 2025. The CNews and CStar channels will continue transmission. The move is partly a response to a decision by the regulator not to renew the broadcast licence for the controversial C8 channel owned by the Vivendi group.
The four channels concerned are CANAL+, CANAL+Cinéma, CANAL+ Sport, and Planète. Only an estimated 70,000 CANAL+ subscribers who use digital terrestrial television will be affected.
The CANAL+ group will offer affected subscribers alternative ways to access the channels via other methods, including satellite, telco, and online television.
The cost of broadcasting the four channels was estimated at between 20 and 30 million euros per year.
The company said that it is a result of “an increasingly restrictive fiscal and regulatory environment for the group in France”. That includes the decision by the regulator to not to renew the broadcast licence of the controversial C8 channel owned by the Vivendi group.
It comes before a meeting to agree the proposed demerger of the Vivendi group into four independent entities that would see Canal+ being listed separately on the London Stock Exchange.
The CANAL+ group operates in over 50 countries and has 26 million subscribers, two-thirds of which are beyond the borders of France.