Canal+ gets green light for M7 acquisition

Pay TV operator Canal+ has received a green light from the European Commission to acquire international European pay TV outfit M7 Group.

The regulatory approval follows Vivendi-owned Canal+’s acquisition of M7 in May. The French pay TV outfit agreed to acquire M7 group from private-equity investor Astorg Partners for just over €1 billion in a move that marked a significant ramping up of the its efforts in the international market.

M7 had previously expanded its satellite pay TV footprint in central and eastern Europe by acquiring Liberty Global’s DTH operations in those markets, giving it a total of about three million subscribers.

Canal + said it would now move ahead to complete the acquisition within the next few days.

Canal+ said that the acquisition would enable it to expand its reach to eight to new European markets, and expand its subscriber base to 20 million, including 12 million direct and indirect subscribers in its domestic French market.

M7 provides pay TV services over satellite, digital-terrestrial TV, OTT or IPTV in the Netherlands, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Germany.

Canal+ said that the group, which until now has larges positioned itself as an aggregator of local and international channels in each of the markets in which it operates, will now be in a position to benefit from the marketing power and know-how of Canal+ in relation to the production of its own branded channels and content and new technology innovations.