M6 strikes extended partnership with Canal+

French broadcaster M6 Group has struck a new partnership deal with Vivendi-owned pay TV provider Canal+ that will enable Canal+ subscribers to continue to view M6’s channels and will see the addition of a raft of other digital services to the platform.

In addition to carriage of the flagship M6 channel and digital channels W9, 6ter, Téva, Paris Première, M6 Music, Girondins TV and M6 Boutique la chaîne, the deal will cover catch-up TV beyond the current seven-day limit and beyond 30 days for certain programmes. Other services include the ability to access multiple episodes of the same series while it is being aired and, for certain series, the ability to view the previous season.

M6 will also provide avant-premières of certain shows between 24 hours and seven days in advances of their linear airing. The show This is Us will be available from January 22 ahead of its airing on the main channel on January 24.

Other features include startover TV and the ability to download content for offline viewing as well as other enhanced TV services. New features will be available on multiple screens.

The deal covers not only the main Canal+ platform but the TV by Canal offerings available via third-party services providers Free, Orange and Bouygues Telecom.

M6 has also struck a new partnership with Vivendi to make a wide range of its programming available via the Dailymotion video site. The broadcaster will provide a selection of comedy, entertainment, news and other content available as well as comedy content produced exclusively for web distribution under the Golden Moustache brand.

M6’s deal with Canal+, terms of which were not disclosed, follows hard on its recent agreement with Altice France/SFR to provide a similar enhanced range of service to that operator.

The M6 deal with Altice followed closely an agreement between the service provider and rival commercial broadcaster TF1. That agreement came after a long stand-off between the pair over retransmssion fees that finally saw Altice give ground to secure a deal that included a similar range of enhanced digital services.