Orange and Canal+ in talks to merge their premium TV channels

July 27, 2010 - PRLog -- Orange Cinéma series channel and channel movie TPS Star, a subsidiary  of Canal +, are likely to merge creating a real alternative to Canal +. Further news could be revealed by Stéphane Richard, CEO of the group France Telecom, on Thursday July 29th, when he reports Q2 results.

This operation would seal the reconciliation between the two groups, which led a real war two years ago with the arrival of Orange in broadcasting. But since the replacement of Didier Lombard by Stephane Richard at the head of France Telecom, relations have eased considerably.

At the moment, Orange Cinéma Séries has 480,000 subscribers while its sister channel Orange Sport has 320,000. TPS Star is a legacy from the old TPS DTH platform, which was taken over by the Canal + Group from a consortium of TF1, M6 and France Telecom

Additionally, according to French news reports, Orange is looking for another partner for its sports channel and seems to be looking to tie up with News Corp for its sports channels rather than with the Canal Group.

Note that Orange Sports shares the rights to the French football league (Ligue 1) with Canal+ till 2012.

http://www.dataxisnews.com

# # #

DATAXIS, is an international market research company that covers 4 play markets worldwide. Our online database contains detailed and up to date data on subscribers, revenues & ARPUs as well as annual forecasts on major operators and technology suppliers.