Spanish satellite TV operator Digital+ has been rebranded Canal+, as the company is reportedly looking to become a major digital entertainment platform.
Stephen Dove, chief digital officer at Prisa TV, the holding company of Digital+, was quoted saying…
Spanish satellite TV operator Digital+ has been rebranded Canal+, as the company is reportedly looking to become a major digital entertainment platform.
Stephen Dove, chief digital officer at Prisa TV, the holding company of Digital+, was quoted saying that the company is looking to add digital services in order to be able to compete on a global level with the likes of Apple, Google Netflix and Facebook.
The company did not respond to requests for comment before the press deadline.
In late July, Samsung Electronics and Digital+ signed an agreement for the distribution of some of the platform’s content on smart TVs, tablets and mobile phones among other media.
This attempt to better compete with rise of the video-on-demand broadband offerings echoes similar concerns in the US, where pay-TV provider Dish Network snapped up the assets of bankrupt US movie rental chain Blockbuster for US$230m, while sister company EchoStar bought the assets of Move Networks, which specialises in large-scale streaming of video over the internet, earlier this year.
Similarly, in France, pay-TV group Canal+ recently said it would buy a 60% stake in local rival Bollore Media in a deal worth €279m (US$383m), allowing it to further move into the free-to-air (FTA) market.
In a joint statement in early September, Canal+ CEO Bertrand Meheut said: “This partnership is intended to prepare the Canal+ Group for the arrival in the television sector of new operators such as Apple, Netflix and Google.”
Although Canal+ and Digital+ are two different companies, the rebranding process is expected to bring more clarity and uniformity, as several channels distributed by Digital+ are already known as Canal+. Some reports also explain that the Canal+ brand has more resonance with the Spanish audience than Digital+.
The Spanish company, which is currently majority-held by Spanish media conglomerate Prisa, was formed in 2003 following the merger of Via Digital, owned by Telefonica, and Canal Satélite Digital, which belonged to Canal+.
Last year, Prisa, through Prisa TV, sold a 44% stake in Digital+ to both Spanish telecom incumbent Telefonica (22%) and Spanish TV channel Telecinco (22%) in return for €976m (US$1.3bn) in cash.
A few months later, in November, it was reported that Canal+ was also interested in buying Digital+, as part of its international expansion strategy. However, a spokeswoman for Canal+ told SatelliteFinance at the time that this interest was not new and that nothing had changed since Canal+ first said it was looking to acquire the Spanish company.
In 2008, a joint bid between Telefonica and French media giant Vivendi, the main shareholder of Canal+, to acquire Digital+ outright was rejected because it did not meet Digital+ parent company Prisa’s original asking price of €3.5bn (US$4.8bn).
While Prisa eventually lowered its asking price, to a value reported at €2.3bn (US$3.1bn)-€2.5bn (US$3.4bn), this was still too high for the bidders.
