From “from January 1, 2025, Canal+ customers will no longer be able to watch our new films, nor access Disney+ (streaming platform integrated into certain offers, editor’s note) nor our television channels via their subscription”, declared Disney. “However, all of our productions – films, series, documentaries – will remain accessible to all directly on Disney+,” the company underlined. For new releases, however, you will have to wait 17 months after their theatrical release, by virtue of the media chronology, which is more favorable to Canal+, the biggest financier of French cinema. “They had the kindness to do it on our anniversary” (Canal+ celebrated its 40th anniversary on Monday, editor’s note), reacted Gérald-Brice Viret, general director of Canal+ France, on franceinfo. “And, on the other hand, I can tell you that it is a fairly marginal consumption by our subscribers: they prefer, for example, Max, Paramount, Netflix, Apple TV or Ciné+”. “It ends on December 31, we are not safe from meeting again one day,” he added.
At the end of 2019, Canal+ – which is preparing to go public as part of the proposed split from its parent company Vivendi – struck a major blow by announcing an exclusive distribution agreement for the Disney platform, a few months before its launch in France. This agreement, which expires at the end of December, had two main components: on the one hand, the inclusion of Disney+ in Canal’s offers and, on the other, priority broadcasting of Disney films on Canal+. On the first, Disney+ has contributed, over the last five years, to Canal+’s aggregation strategy by integrating some of its offers such as Canal+ Ciné Séries, which also allows access to content from Netflix or Max. Operators such as Orange, SFR, etc. Until now, they also had to go through Canal+ to distribute the platform. On the second part, Canal+ was able to take advantage of the first broadcast window (after their VOD release) of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, 20th Century Fox, Blue Sky and Fox Searchlight films. The third part of the agreement concerned the distribution of the Disney Channel, Disney Junior, National Geographic, National Geographic Wild, Voyage and Fox Play (the last two of which no longer exist).
But, in five years, the market has evolved significantly, particularly with the arrival of new players in the world of streaming, we argue at Disney. At the end of their discussions, Canal+ and Disney did not renew their contract, the fate of which seemed compromised for several months for strategic and financial reasons. Disney+, which will remain available for direct download on the dedicated site or the various application stores, is counting on its rich catalog to attract new subscribers.
