The audiovisual group Canal+ will acquire OCS, the payment channel package of the telecommunications operator Orange, as well as its subsidiary for the co-production of films and series, they announced this Monday in a joint press release.
The two groups have formalized “the signing of a memorandum of understanding” and indicate that “Canal + will become the sole shareholder of the two companies, OCS and Orange Studio, at the end of this operation.”
The amount of the transaction is not specified. But according to the newspaper Les Echos, “once it doesn’t hurt, it’s the seller, that is, Orange, who pays money to the buyer of Canal+.” In fact, OCS, launched in 2008 and boasting some 3 million subscribers, is “in debt and at a loss.”
big missing content
This amount “would be less than 100 million euros and, above all, it would not take the form of a dry check to Canal +”, they affirm. the echoes. According to the newspaper, this agreement closes a “negotiation of almost two years.” “Orange will have to bear future negative cash flows (when the company withdraws more money than it enters, editor’s note)”, continues the newspaper, according to which “the operator has agreed to pay guaranteed minimums to Canal+ between three and four years”.
“OCS, which only bills 11 euros a month, has accumulated between 400 and 500 million euros in losses since its launch, according to our information,” adds Les Echos. Currently, Canal+ is the main distributor of OCS and owns a 33.34% stake in it, which gave it a preferential subscription right.
Since January 1, OCS has lost one of its main contents, the emblematic series of the American channel HBO such as ‘Game of Thrones’ or ‘The Sopranos’. HBO has decided not to renew its distribution contract in order to reserve its shows for its own streaming platform, which is not yet available in France.
Source: BFM TV
