Canal Plus

Canal Plus Group (Canal+) is a French film and television studio and distributor. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vivendi Universal and has a film library in excess of 5,000 films. Vivendi Universal has sold some parts of Canal Plus to private investors which are still using the name of Canal Plus.

In the Netherlands, France and Spain the flagship product is a television channel, Canal+. The channel is encrypted for most of the day; viewers who wish to watch the channel's more popular programming (new-release movies and live sport) must subscribe to the service. Previously this involved the hire of a decoder to decrypt the signal, but increasingly Canal+ is being offered as part of a multi-channel satellite or cable television package (known as Canal Satellite in France and Digital+ in Spain).

As of March 2005 Canal+ was lobbying the Spanish government to be allowed to broadcast as an unencrypted channel; at present it is only allowed to broadcast an unencrypted signal for six hours per day. The move is intended to help boost Canal+ revenues from advertising. (Bloomberg report)

Corporate divisions

• StudioCanal, a feature film production house
• Canal Satellite , a pay satellite television distributor

Shows include

• Les Guignols de l'Info
• various shows taking place in the fictional country Groland

External Links

• Canal Plus France (in French)
• Canal Plus Netherlands (in Dutch)
• Canal Plus Spain (in Spanish)