Orange to bundle Canal+ bouquet with fibre

Orange has struck an agreement with Canal+ to bundle the Canalsat Panorama bouquet of channels with its fibre offering from now until the end of this year.

The deal will see Orange offer the bouquet, which includes a large number of family-focused channels, kids services and entertainment and factual channels in HD quality, as part of its fibre offering, which passes five million homes in France, with 1.1 million customers currently.

The pair said they would announce further common initaitives aimed at their subscribers in the autumn.

The deal was announced ahead of Orange’s second quarter financials today.

Orange had 8.1 million TV customers in Europe as of June 30, against 7.4 million a year earlier.

Orange said that fibre and TV content in France and Spain had led its 4.4% uptick in revenues in the quarter, following equally solid growth in the first quarter.

Mobile service revenue continued to decline at a sharper rate of 5.2% in the second quarter, hit by reduced roaming fees.

Overall, Orange revenues were €20 billion for the first half, up 0.3% on a comparable basis, while fixed broadband revenues rose 4.7% in the course of the six months.

In France Orange had 6.51 million TV customers, against 6.15 million a year earlier.

In Spain, Orange had 381,000 customers to its satellite and internet TV offering, with 2.8x growth over the prior year driven by the success of its football offering.

Orange Belgium had 10,500 homes connected to its new combined internet and IPTV offering that uses regulated cable access to reach subscribers.

Orange in central Europe had 387,000 TV customers collectively, against 339,000 a year earlier.