Canal+ Group acquires M7
May 27, 2019 17.54 Europe/London By Julian Clover
Canal+ has acquired the Luxembourg-based M7, which operates a series of independent pay-TV platforms across the Benelux and Central Europe.
In a statement, Canal said the acquisition price would be set at just over €1 billion, based on a turnover of more than €400 million.
“Maxime Saada, Chairman of the CANAL + Group Executive Board, said: “We are particularly pleased with this acquisition project achieved thanks to Vivendi’s full support. The operation would allow Canal + Group to approach the 20 million subscribers worldwide. Our global subscriber base will have almost doubled in five years, with a clear acceleration since 2015. This major acquisition would allow us to reinforce our distribution capacity and to spread more widely the contents of our catalog and our numerous production activities in Europe. ”
M7 has operations in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. Between them the operations have 3 million subscribers with 800,000 subscribing to an antenna-based service.
At the end of the transaction, the Canal + Group will hold almost 20 million subscribers worldwide, including 12 million in Europe.
M7 has built up a portfolio of local DTH platforms; in May 2014, M7 Group purchased the German direct-to-cable platform KabelKiosk from satellite operator Eutelsat, adding to the CanalDigitaal business in the Benelux.
In December 2018, M7 acquired Liberty Global’s DTH operation UPC DTH adding to the Skylink operation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.