Orange is on the edge of completing a deal with Canal+ that would see the pay-TV group take on the management of the Orange Cinema Series channels by the end of September.
Friday’s edition of La Tribune reported that the two companies plan to form a joint venture partnership with each company owning 50% each and a rotating presidency. However, it is likely that Canal will actually take day-today control of the operation with responsibility for the acquisition of new titles.
One possibility is that the Orange Cinema Series will be folded into TPS Star, the survivor of the old TPS satellite platform that merged with CanalSat in 2006.
France Telecom CEO Stéphane Richard has already expressed a desire to find a partner to take the channel forward, having said in July that the two-year old channel would in future focus on “content partnerships”.