On Wednesday, we reported that Canal+ signed a letter of intent to acquire Orange Cinéma Séries channels and video library on demand, as well as Orange Studio. In France, the HBO and HBO Max brands have not had a direct presence so far. A few years ago, OCS had the rights to the American broadcaster’s hits, such as “Home of the Dragon”, “Game of Thrones”, “The Sopranos” and “Chernobyl”.
This month, due to the expiring license, they are to remove nearly 60 such items. Warner Bros. Discovery wants to launch its own streaming service in France in early 2024. It was planned that it would be HBO Max, but the company is working on changing the name of the platform. It will be launched in Europe next year. In France, the service may already appear under a new name. According to unofficial information, the name Max is being considered.
Tough negotiations of the French Canal+
Warner Bros. Paris branch Discovery issued a statement regarding the removal of 7 stations from Canal+ and MyCanal. – We regret that Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Boing, Warner TV, Toonami, TCM Cinema and CNN are no longer available due to a disagreement between the two groups, the company said. – On-demand channels and their services remain available with other French operators. We have not reached an agreement and the talks have been discontinued, so we must end our cooperation on this matter.
Canal+ has not yet commented on this statement. Discovery and Eurosport stations remain in the platform’s offer, as they are covered by other contracts. The removed stations, in turn, are part of the Orange, SFR and Molotov.tv platforms. The French Canal+ has become famous in recent months for its tough negotiating attitude towards broadcasters. For almost two months he removed 5 channels of the leading commercial broadcaster TF1 due to his excessive financial demands. Eventually, the companies came to an agreement. In the summer, the platform planned to remove several M6 Group channels, but before the contract expired, the companies came to an agreement. It is possible that with Warner Bros. Discovery will be similar.
The Polish branch of Canal+ does not decide on such a tough negotiating stance, which, moreover, offers HBO Max at promotional prices to subscribers and subscribers. For years, both channels have operated on the market in parallel. After the merger of Warner Media with Discovery, relations between the American and French companies relaxed a bit. TVN no longer occupies the first place on the Canal+ platform set-top boxes, and Canal+ thematic stations have disappeared from the Player streaming service. Warner Bros. Discovery is still a minority shareholder of Canal+ Polska. The advertising office of TVN Media is, in turn, an advertising broker for Canal+ thematic stations.
