Bad news for Canal+ subscribers: from January 2025, they will have to pay a few euros more for their offer, and without additional service or content. A surprising decision which comes at a particular time for the audiovisual group.
things are happening at Canal+ at the moment! But not really in the consumers’ sense. Having just celebrated its 40th anniversary, listed on the London Stock Exchange and announced its intention to leave TNT (see our article), the audiovisual group has made a decision which risks surprising and, above all, to dissatisfy many subscribers: an increase of 2 euros per month on most packages, from January 2025. This increase will concern a large part of the offers, from the most affordable at 19.99 euros per month up to the packages “premium” like Canal+ Friends & Family at 81.99 euros. Subscribers, who have already started to receive emails informing of the change, will thus have to face a higher bill, without any content enrichment being announced in return.
This change comes at a time when the Canal+ group is going through a particularly complex period. Indeed, the encrypted channel is on the verge of losing several flagship services, notably Disney channels and content as well as the Disney+ platform. These deletions, which also concern offers such as the Press Pass, leave subscribers perplexed by this price increase. Why pay more when the catalog is shrinking? This question remains without a clear answer.
Canal + subscriptions: rising prices without additional content
Canal+ justifies this increase by citing its desire to continue to offer “the best possible experience” to its customers. However, this marketing argument is not enough to appease the critics. On social networks, the reactions were not long in coming. Many users have expressed their dissatisfaction, denouncing the fact that no new features or additional content accompany this increase.
The offers concerned are numerous and varied. For example, the basic Canal+ live/replay offer, which will increase to 29.99 euros per month, and the Canal+ Sport offer at 47.99 euros. For young people, prices are slightly lower but also impacted: subscriptions for those under 26 will see their price increase to 15.99 euros for Canal+ and 24.99 euros for the sports offer. Subscribers who have subscribed to current promotions are not directly affected by this increase, as long as their promotional offer remains active.
This increase could be explained by several economic factors, including inflation, the increase in VAT from 10% to 20% in 2022, and the group’s recent IPO. However, for many subscribers, this does not make the pill any easier to swallow, especially in the face of growing competition from streaming services, such as Netflix or Prime Video, which continue to offer competitive prices.
Canal+ is therefore taking a risky bet. By increasing its prices while reducing its content offering, the channel could push some of its subscribers to consider termination. They also have the possibility of doing so before their next monthly due date, by going to their customer area. It remains to be seen whether Canal+ will manage to justify this increase to its subscribers or if they will turn to more attractive alternatives.
