Vivendi-owned company has announced via Twitter that its premium channels will be made available for free through a set-top box, while subscribers will be given access to all of the company’s channels.
French pay TV provider Canal+ will make its service free during France’s country-wide coronavirus lockdown, announced a couple of hours ago by the country’s President, Emmanuel Macron.
Macron has imposed sweeping measures to try and stem the outbreak of the Covid-19, including the shutdown of schools, shops, theatres, and restaurants across the country. In response, Vivendi-owned Canal+ Group has announced via Twitter that its premium channels will be made available for free through a set-top box, while subscribers will be given access to all of the company’s channels.
“Canal+ goes free for everyone on all set-top boxes. And for our subscribers, we are opening up the access to all our channels, Cinema, Series, Youth and Documentaries. Take care of yourselves,” tweeted Maxime Saada, Chairman and Chief Executive of Canal+ Group.
Canal+ has around 8.4 million subscribers in France, with 20.3 million worldwide. This announcement comes just months after Canal+ struck a deal to become the exclusive distributor in France for Disney+, which is due to launch in Europe next week.
For now, the measure only apply to France, although Canal+ also owns services in other countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Romania – all added following its acquisition of pay-TV operator M7 in September.
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