Canal+ teams up with A1 Telekom Austria for new TV offering

Canal+ has struck a partnership with A1 Telekom Austria that will see the pay TV provider enter the Austrian market in the first quarter of next year.

Canal+ and the Austrian telco’s TV arm, A1 nowTV, will roll out a new content offering adapted to the Austrian market, with A1 turning to Canal+’s product and distribution expertise in the area of premium content to develop it.

The move is the latest foray by the pay TV operator into the central and eastern European market following its acquisition of Polish film distributor acquisition Kino Świat and – this week – channel provider SPI International.

Canal+ is already active in the Austrian market through its M7 subsidiary, which offers a pay TV service via satellite and the internet under the HD Austria brand. The A1 partnership will however see the group develop a totally new offering that leans on A1’s network and its mobile and high-speed broadband services, which serve 5.1 million mobile and 1.9 million fixed-line customers.

Canal+ said the partnership fitted with its strategy of creating and developing TV packages for B2B distribution and to position itself as an operator that can offer telecom operators a ready-made TV service in highly competitive markets.

For A1 Telekom Austria, the move represents a “next step” for the TV offering it has developed over the last few years, having created A1 nowTV as a separate company in 2019.

A1 nowTV is currently available via the A1 TV box, the A1 Xplore TV box and app and on the web.

“After the successful development of A1 nowTV, it was time for the next step. With Canal+, we have an international partner who brings a lot of content know-how. It’s a partnership to develop a strong local content offering together,” said Matthias Lorenz, A1 senior director, transformation, market and corporate functions.

“We are pleased to enter into a partnership with A1 to stir up the Austrian TV market with an offer that combines exclusive European and International content and the latest on demand TV technology. In France, we have almost nine million customers, 70% of whom are already using on demand services. Canal+ group has strong know-how in building content and offers dedicated to its different markets. We are ready to build this ambition for Austria,” said Canal+ Luxembourg manager and director of HD Austria, Martijn van Hout.