Warner TV Seeking New French Home After Talks To Renew Exclusive Deal With Canal+ Fail

Melanie Goodfellow
·2 min read

Canal+ has removed Warner TV from its offering after the French pay-TV giant and the channel’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery France failed to agree on renewed terms.

The channel, which was available exclusively via different Canal+ packages and its mobile App MyCanal, announced the news it was being taken off air by Canal+ in a curt statement on Tuesday (Jan 10).

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“We regret that Warner TV is no longer available on Canal+ and MyCanal due to the lack of an agreement between the two groups. Warner TV is not stopping and will be available again in Metropolitan France soon,” it read.

The channel noted that it remained available in many of France’s overseas territories as well as to other French-speaking audiences in territories such as Belgium and Switzerland via other partnerships.

The breakdown in talks comes as Warner Bros. Discovery France continues to prepare the ground for the launch of HBO Max in the territory in 2024 in an operation involving the winding down of individual local contracts for top HBO shows.

French media reported earlier this month that around 60 HBO shows including Game Of Thrones, The Sopranos and Chernobyl would be removed from the bouquet of Orange Cinéma Series (OCS) on January 1.

News that Warner TV would no longer be available on Canal+ came just a.day after the latter’s parent company Canal+ Group announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding to acquire OCS and Orange.

The contract dispute has also resulted in other Warner channels Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Boing, Toonami, TCM Cinéma et CNN being removed from the Canal+ offering.

These channels are available on other platforms in France such as Orange, SFR or Molotov.tv and are less impacted.

Warner’s Eurosport 360 will continue to be available on Canal+ because it is covered by a separate agreement

Warner TV draws around 3.7m viewers a month in France (according to figures released by audience monitor Médiamétrie/Médiamat’Thématik in early 2022) with popular shows including Leverage: Redemption, The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls and the original French show Visitors.

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