Andre Rousselet, founder of the French pay-TV network Canal+, died on Sunday at his Paris home, his family said. He was 93.
“He died peacefully at his home,” Philippe Rousselet, one of his sons, told news agency AFP.
Rousselet founded Canal+ in 1984, with the help of his friend, prime minister François Mitterrand, who believed that the French media landscape at the time was a closed affair, heavily controlled by politics.
Canal+ was an instant success, with its fare of movies, TV series and entertainment, serving as an alternative to the state-controlled public television, that mainly served talking head to the audience.
In 1994 Rousselet stepped down as chairman of the pay TV broadcaster, when advertising agency Havas, water utilities company Compagnie Generale des Eaux and the Societé General bank took effective control of the premium pay broadcaster.