13/06/2003

The French pay TV channel, Canal+ appears to be sliding into recession, with 130,000 fewer subscribers since the start of 2003, according to a survey published in today’s edition of the daily paper, i>Le Monde. Canal+ is the French film industry's principle source of financing, and with this drop in it’s audience, it isn’t helping to improve the business of its parent company, Vivendi Universal.

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There was already a loss of 45,000 subscribers in 2002 and the first five months of 2003 have already seen 130,000 "deserters": with the state of the pay TV channel Canal+ getting steadily worse. The drain has officially put down to the flux of subscribers who take advantage of special promotions, but most of all it can be explained by the drop in audiences for the free to air TV channel, which is the showcase used to attract new viewers for the Pay TV service.
Nevertheless, the situation hasn’t yet reached desperate proportions. Canal + continues to have a stronghold in the French audiovisual sector, with more than 4.3 million subscribers. And the channel will be revolutionising its programming in preparation for a re-launch. In addition, for it’s part, the CanalSatellite channel has made important progress, with 2.3m people already registered, and it is aiming for the viable target of an additional 200,000 subscribers in 2003.

The troubling times affecting Canal+ since 2001 (two business plans and the disappointment of VU) have led to the continuing concern about the state of affairs for professionals working in the French cinema sector. Canal+ finances 60% of French home grown films, with its legal obligations for the presale of titles (an investment of Euro 122.99m for 109 films in 2002), and if the channel quickly slides into recession, it would create a chain reaction of problems for the whole French cinematographic production process.