French broadcaster Canal Plus is planning to relaunch its CanalPlay subscription-based VoD service in spring, reports Les Echos quoting unnamed sources. The broadcaster is reportedly considering a monthly subscription in the region of EUR 10, offering mainly TV series and documentaries targeted at a young audience, possibly under a new brand.
News of a possible relaunch comes approximately a month after Canal Plus CEO Maxime Saada told a French parliamentary committee that the current CanalPlay service was about to be discontinued because it was struggling to compete with Netflix. In July 2018, Saada stated during a senate hearing that the CanalPlay subscriber base had fallen to 200,000 from a peak of 800,000, blaming the competitive disadvantage to Netflix arising from the broadcaster's regulatory obligations.
France's competition authority decided in 2017 to update the regulatory framework put in place in 2006 as a condition to Canal Plus' acquisition of TPS and CanalSatellite. The watchdog eased several obligations, for example with regard to the acquisition of rights to US-made content and the ability to distribute selected SVoD programmes on an exclusive basis. Sources told Les Echos that this more favourable regime has encouraged the broadcaster to opt for a relaunch of CanalPlay.
Since its creation, the SVoD service has been positioned independently from the rest of Canal Plus' pay-TV channels, offering an online catalogue of 10,000 programmes. While the future of CanalPlay has been under review, the broadcaster has focused its attention on developing its MyCanal application. Within MyCanal, customers can currently sign up to the EUR 9.99/month 'Start by Canal' SVoD package, which integrates CanalPlay and is available on connected devices (PC, smartphone, tablet, Apple TV/Android TV).
