| CANAL+ | |
| Type: | Société anonyme |
| Country: | France |
| Available: | Satellite television IPTV |
| Founded: | by André Rousselet |
| Headquarters: | Issy-les-Moulineaux |
| Broadcast Area: | France Switzerland Africa |
| Owner: | Vivendi |
| Parent: | Groupe Canal+ |
| Former Names: | Canalsatellite, Canalsat, Canal |
Canal+, established as CanalSatellite in 1992 and later rebranding to CanalSat, is a French subscription TV provider associated with the channel of the same name. It is a subsidiary of Groupe Canal+, which is wholly owned by Vivendi.
Digital satellite provider CanalSatellite was launched as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Groupe Canal+ on 6 December 1991.[1] The shareholders were Canal+ (66 percent) and Lagardère Active (34 percent), a subsidiary of Lagardère. Canal+ began satellite broadcasting in 1992, to reach parts of France not covered by cable.[2]
On 27 April 1996, CanalSatellite launched as a digital satellite platform, with 24 channels and interactive services.
On 23 May 2005, CanalSatellite was renamed Canalsat.[3]
With Canal+, the utilisation of the card pairing (QEV) technology allowed access to many channels such as Eurosport, Paris Premiere, or LCI.[4]
On 31 August 2006, after acquiring competitor TPS, the two companies were merged within the Canal+ Group.[3]
On 7 December 2010 both Canal+ channels and the 90 CanalSat channels became available live on Microsoft's XBOX 360.[3]
In 2011 the merger with TPS was cancelled by the Competition Authority. Canal+ appealed, and the Authority determined that its authorisation would be conditional on a number of injunctions, including "re-establish[ing] sufficient competition in the pay television market".[5]
In September 2015 Vincent Bolloré announced that the service would change its name to simply "Canal".[6] CanalSat adopted the new name on 15 November 2016, accompanied by new offerings.
In 2017, Canal lost Discovery and NBCUniversal channels, recovered by SFR. Canal replaced them by exclusive newly-launched channels: Warner TV, Polar+, Viceland, and Novelas TV.
The service was renamed Canal+ on 1 August 2019, to unify its brand across the world. In September 2019, Canal+ offered a new subscription package, "Canal+ Ciné Séries", which included Netflix.[7]