Canal+ boosts Vivendi with strong subscriber growth

Canal+ was a star performer in parent company Vivendi’s portfolio in the wake of its deconsolidation of Universal Music last year.

Canal+’s total subscriber number, including both individual and wholesale subscribers, was 23.7 million at the end of year, up from 22.1 million a year earlier, while revenues rose by 5.2% to €5.77 billion, contributing the lion’s share of Vivendi’s overall sales of €9.572 billion, up 10.4%.

While the pay TV outfit’s revenues in mainland France grew at a relatively modest 2.9%, Canal+ managed to post a net increase in subscribers of 373,000 to reach 9.05 million.

In France, Canal+ more recently has benefited from an agreement with French cinema organisations by which it guaranteed to invest ovber €600 million in French an European movie production for the next three years and secured the rights to air titles six months after their theatrical release, with exclusivity for at least nine months in the first window, a major improvement on the previous windowing regime, when it was forced to wait 12 months to show movies on its service.

Canal+ has also recently struck an agreement with ViacomCBS/Paramount to include Paramount+ in a hard bundle as part of the Canal+ offering by the end of the year, along with nine ViacomCBS channels.

Revenues from international operations increased by 4.7% thanks to strong subscriber growth of 1.2 million to reach 14.7 million.

Production arm Studiocanal benefited from the reopening of cinemas and strong TV sales, with revenues up 27.5% at constant currency. International developments in the course of the year included the launch of services in Ethiopia and an increase in Canal+s take in South Africa’s MultiChoice beyond the threshold of 15%

myCanal, the outfit’s digital offering, also launched in Africa in 2021 and is currently available in 29 countries overall.

Canal+ also announced the planned acquisition of 70% of channel provider SPI International.

EBITA was up by 9.5% to €480 million.