Streaming The platform would have accumulated between 400 and 500 million euros in losses since its launch
Canal+, Exhibition MIPCOM (International Market of Communications Programmes) at Palais des Festivals et des Congres, Cannes FRANCE – 10/17 /2022//SYSPEO_sysB033/Credit:SYSPEO/SIPA/2210191940/Credit:SYSPEO/SIPA/2210191955 — SYSPEO
Orange plans to sell its television subsidiary OCS and its cinema studio to Orange. Canal+, negotiations being accelerated in this direction, indicated Friday a source close to the file, confirming information from Échos. Contacted by AFP, neither the telecom operator nor the encrypted channel wanted to comment.
Orange management “warned employees of OCS and Orange Studio on Thursday that negotiations with Canal+ were accelerating,” Echos, judging “possible that a transaction will be announced in a few days” after discussions started “almost two years ago”.
Canal+ is the main distributor of the pay channel package OCS (nearly 3 million subscribers), and holds a 34% stake which gives it a right of first refusal. The encrypted channel is also the favorite candidate to the takeover of the Orange film studio, “which controls a catalog of films that could well merge with that of StudioCanal, a subsidiary of Canal+” of the Vivendi group.
Between 400 and 500 million in losses
OCS, which enjoys a partnership with HBO (“Game of thrones”, “House of the Dragon”) until 2023, has already accumulated between “400 million and 500”million loss since its launch” in 2008, according to the economic daily.
Or le bouquet, proposed; alone at from 11 euros per month, could lose its main loss leader, HBO content should a priori join the future streaming platform to be launched in France by Warner Bros Discovery, parent company of the brand and another potential buyer of’ OCS.
By selling its subsidiary to; Canal+, Orange would like to “perpetuate the payment of OCS film financing obligations, but above all the channels and OCS jobs”, while strengthening a French player in the face of American giants like Netflix, specifies Les Echos.