A meeting of the Canal+ Group Supervisory Board has confirmed Vincent Bolloré as its new chairman.
The billionaire chairman of Vivendi replaces Arnaud de Puyfontaine. Bertrand Meheut has been ousted as President of Canal+ Group by Jean-Christophe Thiery, the current head of Bolloré Media.
Maxime Saada continues as the Chief Executive Officer and Mehut – who has been in post for 13 years – will continue as a special advisor
Such changes will make clear the authority of both Bolloré and Vivendi over the French pay-TV operation.
The moves come from a position of strength; Vivendi posted ‘satisfactory’ results, but Canal was ahead of expectations.
The Group saw a 2.5% increase in revenues at €2,734 million, compared to the first half of 2014.
Canal+ Group had a total of 15.3 million subscriptions, a year-on-year increase of 176,000, due to the strong performance of Canal+ in Africa and Vietnam, and of the Canalplay streaming service in mainland France.
Revenues from pay-TV operations in mainland France fell slightly year-on-year.
International pay-TV revenues were up 9.1% compared to the first half of 2014, thanks to continued growth in the subscriber base.
