Canal+

Canal+ (Canal Plus,, meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted. Unencrypted programming can be viewed free of charge on Canal+ and on satellite on Canal+ Clair (Clear).

Canal+ is a supporter of the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) initiative, which promotes and establishes an open European standard for hybrid set-top boxes for the reception of broadcast TV and broadband multimedia applications with a single user interface.

Since November 2017, Canal+ began to expand their catalogue internationally through the international feed, Canal+ International.

History
After the announcement about the launch of the fourth French television channel, Canal+ started broadcasting on 4 November 1984. In 1986, the channel had one million subscribers. It has produced numerous films of auteurs, including David Lynch's The Straight Story, Mulholland Dr., and Inland Empire.

From 2000 to 2002, Virginie Calmels successively held two positions, that of financial director and then CEO.

With the launch of the digital satellite provider CanalSatellite on 27 April 1996, Canal+ received two new sister channels: Canal+ Jaune and Canal+ Bleu. A fourth channel, called Canal+ Vert came along on 31 August 1998. The channels changed their names to Canal+ Confort (now known as Canal+ Décalé since 2005), Canal+ Cinéma and Canal+ Sport on 1 November 2003.

In September 2005, Canal+, Canal+ Cinéma and Canal+ Sport started broadcasting in the French digital terrestrial television network. The free-to-air parts of Canal+ had already been broadcasting for a few months by then. In August 2008, Canal+ started broadcasting the encrypted parts of its main channel in high-definition in the terrestrial network. Canal+ announced plans to turn off the analogue terrestrial signals by 2010.

An account of the rise of Canal+ and CanalSatellite, and the establishment of the Canal+ Group as a major satellite broadcaster in Europe is given in the book, High Above, which tells the story of the foundation and development of the leading European satellite operator, Astra.

In February 2013, for €29 million per year, Canal+ bought the TV rights for the FIA Formula One World Championship. The same year, the group bought the rights to the English Premier League, the most watched football league in the world.

In July 2014, the launch of a new pan-African TV channel - A+ - was announced. Based in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), it aims to become the leading television company in French-speaking Africa.

In September 2015, Vincent Bolloré -Chairman of Vivendi- was appointed as chairman of Canal Plus. He changed several former executives and aligned Canal +'s operations with Vivendi's.

On November 15, 2017, Quebec cable system Videotron began carrying Canal+ International, marking it the first provider to carry the channel. It is also the second attempt at making Canal+ available in Canada since the former paid Canal+ Canada channel on Dailymotion, launched in 2013.

As of August 2018, Canal+ International is on U.S. satellite provider DirecTV in HD on channel 2010.

Programmes

 * Original French TV Shows : Les Guignols de l'info; Groland; H; Jamel Comedy Club; Spiral (Engrenages) ; Mafiosa; Le Journal du Hard; Pigalle la Nuit; La Commune; Braquo; Reporters; Scalp; Le Grand Journal; La Matinale; Le petit journal; La Nouvelle Edition; Lundi Investigation; Canal Football Club; Dimanche+; Maison Close; Les Revenants; The Spy; Savages (Les Sauvages)
 * Original French/British TV Show : The Tunnel
 * Original French/German/Italian TV Show : Borgia
 * French TV Shows: Mad Pigeon 
 * Kids Shows : Rugrats (Les Razmokets) ; Teletubbies; Kaeloo; Mia and Me and The Cramp Twins.
 * American TV Shows : 24 (24 heures chrono) ; 30 Rock; Big Love; Cold Case; Damages; Desperate Housewives; Dexter; Fallen Angels; FlashForward; How I Met Your Mother; It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Philadelphia) ; Mad Men; Nurse Jackie; Pushing Daisies; Royal Pains; The Daily Show; The L Word; The New Adventures of Old Christine (Old Christine) ; The Office; The Pacific; The Secret Life of the American Teenager (La Vie Secrète d'une Ado Ordinaire) ; The Shield; Two and a Half Men (Mon Oncle Charlie) ; Vampire Diaries; Weeds and United States of Tara; also Boomtown; Rome; Six Feet Under; Spin City; Surface and Will & Grace, Game of Thrones.
 * American animated TV Shows : American Dad!; Drawn Together; Family Guy (Les Griffin) ; South Park and The Tom and Jerry Show.
 * American reality TV Shows : The Simple Life.
 * Japanese animated TV Shows : Fullmetal Alchemist; Monster; Noir and Samurai Champloo.
 * British TV Shows : Skins; Merlin; Wire in the Blood; The Office and Spooks (MI-5).
 * Irish/Canadian TV Shows : The Tudors (Les Tudors).
 * Canadian TV shows : Flashpoint; Little Mosque on the Prairie, Life with Derek, Naturally Sadie, Total Drama: Revenge of the Island.


 * Canadian/French TV Shows : Donkey Kong Country (Donkey Kong)
 * French erotic TV series : X Femmes (2008–2009)
 * Italian TV Show : The Name of the Rose (2019)

Sister channels
Les Chaînes Canal+ is the brand name used for all the Canal+-branded channels in France. Prior to 2008 it was called Canal+ Le Bouquet.

International versions
As Canal+ was launched in new markets the brand has been used in several countries. When launching additional channels the channels were usually given colour-coded names, such as Canal+ Blue, Canal+ Green, Canal+ Yellow and Canal+ Red. Many of these subsidiaries have been sold and as of 2007, only the Spanish and Polish Canal+ were partially owned by French Canal+.


 * Canal+ Spain, now known as #0. Launched in 1990 in Spain by Sogecable as an analogue pay channel, similar to the French and Polish version. In 2015 The largest Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica received the approved and closed the acquisition of Canal+, now renamed Movistar+.
 * Canal+ Flanders, became Canal+ when FilmNet was bought. Later sold and is now known as Play More (Telenet, a subsidiary of Liberty Global).
 * Canal+ Belgium, now known as BeTV. It shares many common programs with the French channels. It is owned by VOO, a public telco in Wallonia.
 * Canal+ Netherlands. Filmnet was rebranded as Canal+ in 1997. Canal+ sold the channels later on. In 2005, the channels were bought by Liberty Global and renamed them to Sport1 and Film1 in February 2006. Sport1 changed its name to Ziggo Sport Totaal in November 2015. Film1 was sold to Sony Pictures Television in 2015.
 * Canal+ Poland. The channel is called Canal+, the satellite platform Platforma CANAL+
 * Canal+ Scandinavia, launched as Canal+ in 1997 with the integration of the FilmNet channels. The company was sold and renamed C More Entertainment, although the brand Canal+ was still used. It was purchased by the SBS Broadcasting Group in 2005, which was merged with ProSiebenSat.1 Media in 2007. In 2008, an agreement was made to sell the channels to TV4 Group. Since 2012 it is called C-More.
 * Tele+ Digitale, the Italian branch sold in 2003 to News Corp. and fused with Stream TV, the direct competitor. Now, it is called Sky Italia.
 * Premiere, a German premium television channel and platform launched in 1990, was founded by Canal+, Bertelsmann and Kirch. A few years later, Canal+ sold its share of Premiere. It is now known as Sky Deutschland and is owned by the UK's Sky plc.
 * Movie Network, an Australian premium television service launched in 1995, was founded as a partnership between Canal+, HBO (a subsidiary of Time Warner), The Walt Disney Company, MGM/UA and Village Roadshow. A few years later, Canal+ dropped out from the partnership.
 * The Brazil version of Canal+ in 1989, not the own version, retransmission of American ESPN. Ended transmissions due to launch of the Brazil cable providers in 1991.
 * In May 2009, K+ founded by Canal+ and VTV was launched. K+ serves Digital and Satellite Paid Televisions in Vietnam.
 * Canal+ Horizons, launched as Canal Horizons in 1990, is the channel in Africa.
 * Canal+ Myanmar: originally launched by Forever Group as 4TV in 2006, it became a joint venture with Canal+ Group in 2017, and was rebranded as Canal+ in February 2018.