Vivendi chairman Jean-Bernard Levy has told Canal+ it must increase subscription levels and make savings on content, particularly football, if it is to meet profitability targets.
Vivendi has brought forward its objective of a 20% profit margin for the pay-TV group by one year to 2010. Such levels are already met by BSkyB and exceeded by the US-based HBO. Levy said he expected an operating margin in 2007 of slightly above 7%.
Levy said he was looking to reduce the current €2 billion budget by between 10% and 12%. The targets would be football and acquired content from the US. Both might be challenging as although the merger with DTH platform TPS would have reduced costs its place as a challenger to Canal’s pay-TV crown has effectively been taken by France’s burgeoning IPTV sector.
