Bolloré plans Canal+ management revamp

Vincent Bolloré

Vivendi chairman Vincent Bolloré is planning to make significant changes to the organisation of Canal+, according to French press reports.

According to Le Figaro, citing an unnamed source close to the process, the Vivendi boss will make an announcement this week that will see the pay TV operator more closely integrated with Vivendi.

According to the report, Bolloré will himself take the presidency of Canal+’s supervisory council, currently occupied by Arnaud de Puyfontaine, who will take a role within Vivendi.

The current president of Canal+’s board, Bertrand Méheut will relinquish his position after 13 years, according to the report.

The latest moves follow changes announced in July, which saw the departure of CEO Rodolphe Belmer and his replacement by Maxime Saada, the departure of head of free channels Ara Aprikian and Canasat chief Alice Holzman and the arrival of Grégoire Castaing as finance director.

Separately, Canal+ is reportedly to change the names of its free-to-air channels D8 and D17 and news service iTélé to C8, C17 and CNews respectively, according to a Tweet by well-known journalist Thierry Moreau.

Vivendi registered the new titles with intellectual property body the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) in July.