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AUDIOVISUAL Benelux

New owners for Canal+?

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- Belgian telecommunications companies, Belgacom and Telenet, compete against News Corp for a slice of Canal+

Belgian communications companies, Belgacom and Telenetare in negotiations to buy Canal Plus Benelux, a subsidiary of Canal Plus that was put on the open market with a reported price tag of Euros300million by troubled media colossus, Vivendi Universal. According to a report published in Belgian daily, “Le Soir”, telecommunications and Internet provider, Belgacom is reluctant to fork out more than Euros200million. Buying Canal + would open up the digital television market to them.
Flemmish company Telenet is said to be looking for French-speaking partners to share the costs with. They may have found them; either “Le Bouquet”, a cable distributor and pre-existing partner of Canal+ in Belgium, or the Deficom Group, who would like to enter the digital TV market in the south of the country.
For the last two years, Canal+, both in Walloon and Flanders has seen a drop in new subscriptions and the number stands at 155,000. Canal+ tried to contain the damage by with an autumn line up featuring lots of soccer and over 400 films including numerous 2001 hits like Amélie, Billy Elliott, Absolument Fabuleux and No Man’s Land.
In an interview with “Le Soir”, Richard Miller, the French-speaking Minister for Audiovisual affairs said he was ready to “facilitate” Canal+’s outstanding investment obligations to the Belgian film industry ( in 2001, they invested Euros2.3million) as a way of ensuring that Canal+ Benelux ended up in Belgian hands. Another contender is known to be Rupert Murdoch whose News Corporation would like to snatch up Canal+Benelux, and, reportedly, also Canal+ branches in Italy, Scandinavia and Poland too.
More news should become available after the next scheduled meeting of the Vivendi board on 25 September.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)
(The article continues below - Commercial information)

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