OCS changes ownership. Canal+ announces that it has reached an agreement with Orange to recover the package of pay channels. But he has lost interest since the end of the contract with HBO.
It is an upheaval in the television market. The OCS pay channel package (which includes OCS Max, OCS City, OCS Géants and OCS Go) comes under the control of Canal+. In a statement released on January 9, 2023, the private group announced an agreement with its former owner, Orange, to recover its channels. The amount of the transaction is not indicated.
It’s not just the OCS channels in this deal, which has been under negotiation for months. The agreement also covers Orange Studio, the subsidiary of the telecommunications operator. ” Canal+ will become at the end of this transaction the sole shareholder of the two companies “, is it specified, signing the disengagement of the ISP from the audiovisual sector.
Without HBO, does OCS still have enough assets?
The interest of OCS has melted like snow in the sun since January 1, 2023, with the loss of its distribution contract with the American channel HBO. It was through OCS that we could have access to extremely popular series, like Game Of Thrones, Chernobyl, Silicon Valley, True Detective or watch men. In all, 64 HBO series have left the OCS catalog.
As it stands, there are only four HBO series left on OCS: The White Lotus (seasons 1 and 2), House of the Dragon (season 1), Perry Mason (season 1) and Betty (season 1 and 2). There are also other contents remaining on OCS, like mr robot, The Handmaid’s Tale and Irma Vep, but also all the original works produced by OCS. But, the attractiveness of the bouquet is now less.
Today, the fate of HBO series in France is unclear. HBO Max, which is the streaming service of the American channel, seemed the appropriate receptacle, but its launch in France has not been officially confirmed – and the most recent developments seemed unfavorable. There is still no broadcaster selected for France.
OCS would have just under 3 million subscribers in France, according to figures from November 2022 relayed by variety. This is little compared to Canal+ (9.6 million) or Netflix (13 million) and for an SVOD platform which was launched in 2008. Apart from the Canal+ formulas, OCS is billed 10.99 euros per month without commitment (there is also an offer at 12.99 euros per month).
According to The echoes, Canal+ recovers a bouquet which has taken between 400 and 500 million euros in losses since its launch – the transaction would be for 100 million euros, with a deal whereby Orange will have to continue to pay Canal+ guaranteed minimums on a few years. ” It is the seller, i.e. Orange, who pays the money to the Canal+ buyer “, notes the newspaper.
The switchover of OCS at Canal+ foreshadows a possible revision of the offer at Canal+: will the bouquet of TV channels remain accessible via a separate formula, as today, or will it soon be integrated and merged? in the formulas of Canal+? Prices could also see some movement, but no doubt limited, especially without HBO.
(updated with clarification in the article)
