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ACQUISITION OF UEFA CLUB COMPETITIONS RIGHTS IN AUSTRIA

08 December 2022

CANAL+ ACQUIRES UEFA CLUB COMPETITIONS RIGHTS IN AUSTRIA

CANAL+ will broadcast selected top games from the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League live and exclusive as of 2024.

CANAL+ is very pleased to have been awarded by UEFA the exclusivity of the best UEFA Champions League first pick game played on Wednesday and the best UEFA Europa League or UEFA Europa Conference League first pick game in each matchweek. Following the game, CANAL+ will also broadcast the big post-game show with highlights of all the games of the matchweek. Additionally, CANAL+ will be the only operator broadcasting all three finals of the UEFA top club competitions. CANAL+ subscribers are thus guaranteed to be able to follow the games of the best Austrian and European clubs.

This acquisition marks the premiere of the most prestigious European competitions on CANAL+ in Austria, starting in 2024, and strengthens the line-up of the recently launched Austrian CANAL+ service with the most exciting European football games now bundled with premium and exclusive movies and series.

"We’ve started to build the Home of European Movies and Series in Austria earlier this year, together with our partner A1” commented Martijn van Hout, Vice President CANAL+ Luxembourg for Austria and Germany. “Now we will start to build the new Home of European Football to provide a premium and widely available sports program, for the broad audience of Austrians that enjoy football of the highest level”.

The sports programs will be distributed via linear TV and the streaming platform of CANAL+ in Austria.

With this partnership, CANAL+ Group is delighted to expand to Austria its long-lasting relationship with UEFA. In the current cycle, CANAL+ Group broadcasts the UEFA club competitions in more than 50 countries including in France, Switzerland, Sub-Saharan Africa, Myanmar, or Haiti, and offers premium sports channels to its subscribers in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.

Jacques du Puy, CEO of CANAL+ International and deputy CEO of CANAL+ Group commented: “The acquisition of these premium sports rights is part of CANAL+ Group’s international development strategy and shows our commitment to drive the growth of our platforms with our partners in Austria. Our goal is to provide our customers with the best highlights and services, especially in terms of sports, movies, and series.”

CANAL+ was launched in Austria in March 2022 in cooperation with A1 Telekom Austria as the European Movies & Series streaming service as well as the linear TV channel CANAL+ FIRST. The channel is available on A1 Xplore TV, HD Austria as well as Liwest, KabelPlus and Sky.

CANAL+ unlocks great stories through its extensive selection of European series and movies titles, including exclusives for Austria like Señorita 89 and Klangor as well as Austrian productions.

In November CANAL+ launched the in-house production StreamTalks with TV star Hilde Dalik (known from the popular TV-series "Vorstadtweiber"). In the talk show, series and film highlights of all the major streamers are presented and the latest trends are discussed. Streamtalks is aired every Thursday at 19:45 on CANAL+ FIRST and is available in the CANAL+ app.

The OTT and Satellite TV provider HD Austria is part of the CANAL+ Group as well.

ABOUT CANAL+ GROUP

CANAL+ Group, a subsidiary of Vivendi, is a major player in the creation and distribution of content worldwide, with nearly 24 million subscribers, a presence in more than 50 countries and 7500 employees on every continent. CANAL+ Group has nearly 10 million subscribers in France and nearly 7 million in Africa. It is the leading television operator in French-speaking Africa and the largest shareholder in MultiChoice, the leader in pay-TV in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa. CANAL+ Group is a major player in the production and marketing of television channels, with 116 linear and non-linear channels produced in-house. It aggregates major thematic channels and global content platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Lionsgate+ and Paramount+.
With nearly 3.4 billion euros invested in content each year, it is a key player in sport (main funder in France of football and rugby), films (leading funder in France and Poland), and series (including more than 50 original series per year in more than 14 languages). With the support of its subsidiary STUDIOCANAL, which owns 10 production companies in 7 European countries, CANAL+ Group is the leading producer and distributor of feature films and TV series in Europe. It holds a catalogue of more than 7000 titles from 60 countries. Finally, it is also a key player in digital with its CANAL+/myCANAL app, whose international deployment is accelerating, with a presence in some thirty countries to date.