Maxime Saada: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+ Group, the Vivendi-owned French TV group, has won its court case against TF1 after being sued by latter following a dispute over carriage fees. The ruling was issued on Sept. 22 by the business court of Paris. Chaired by Maxime Saada (pictured), Canal+ was previously distributing TF1 and its channels TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI as part of its TNT Sat paybox platform which traditionally gives access to all French channels. But when their pact was about to expire on Aug. 31, TF1 tried to renegotiate the terms of the agreements and asked Canal+ for pay 50% more for the right to distribute its free-to-air channels. Canal+ refused and subsequently stopped distributing them, leading TF1 to sue the banner.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+, France’s leading pay TV group, has signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony to ramp up its programming of U.S. movies. Under the pact, Canal+ now has access to the studios’ new films six months after their releases. Sony’s “Spiderman : No Way Home” is currently being broadcast on Canal+’s linear pay TV channels, along with its transactional VOD platform, My Canal. The news was half-revealed by Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group’s chair and CEO, during the company’s upbeat press conference on Sept. 14, which was held at their posh headquarters in Paris. Saada, who recently joined the management board of Vivendi, Canal Plus Group’s parent company, said the outfit already boasts partnerships with Fox, Disney and Warner, as well as Paramount.

French major Canal Plus has finalized an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Netherlands-based broadcaster SPI International.

French pay TV group Canal Plus will be free for the next few weeks or months during the country’s lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. For a number of days, France’s theaters, shops, restaurants and schools have been shut down, and the president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to unveil even more drastic measures, such as ordering the nation’s total confinement, this evening.