Borussia Dortmund would only be interested in a Jadon Sancho return in January if most of his wages were covered by Manchester United, a report claims.
03.10.2023 - 05:03 / variety.com
Ben Croll Clad in his familiar accessories of dark suspenders and tortoise-shell glasses, Canal+ Group CEO Maxime Saada cuts a decorous and professorial figure, though the two framed posters of “Scarface” and “The Godfather” that decorate his office walls offer a slightly better insight into the chairman’s inner passions.
“[I follow] a logic of intensity,” Saada tells Variety. “As a payTV player, our main objective is not to broadcast content to the widest possible audience in order to lure to advertizers, nor to aim for consensus. We want to inspire passion and fervor, because reactions of ‘not bad’ do not encourage subscriptions.” Saada is being honored at Mipcom with the Variety Vanguard Award.
Since taking the reins eight years ago, Saada has looked for new subscribers all across the globe, transforming the emblematic French brand into a significant international player that has grown from 11 million (almost entirely European) clients in 2015 to last year’s tally of 25.5 million, spread across more than 50 countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Fueling this expansion has been a recent slate of acquisitions, as Canal+ has claimed a 12% stake in the Scandinavian streaming platform Viaplay and a 26.1% stake in Hong Kong-based OTT service Viu, while angling for a controlling interest in the latter service within the next few years.
Under Saada’s watch, the pay-TV giant has already become lead shareholder of South Africa’s MultiChoice and in 2019, absorbed the Luxembourg-based, Central and Eastern Europe-targeting M7 Group. As the CEO sees it, all of these initiatives were born of the same overarching strategy.
“I don’t want to be dependent on a single market,” Saada explains. “My number one concern is how to help Canal
.Borussia Dortmund would only be interested in a Jadon Sancho return in January if most of his wages were covered by Manchester United, a report claims.
Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “It’s been a really buzzy and busy market,” said Lucy Smith, director of Mipcom TV market and conference, and MipJunior, the kids TV event that preceded it, in Cannes Wednesday. More than 11,000 participants from more than 100 countries had come to the event, which runs Oct. 16-19.
Marta Balaga Pole-vaulting champion Armand “Mondo” Duplantis might be on his way to another record, as Red Bull Studios continues selling “Born to Fly,” a documentary feature about his life. So far, the film has been picked up by Germany (Sky), France (Canal+), Switzerland (3+ and RTS), Norway (NRK), Finland (MTV3), Spain (Movistar Plus+), Belgium (VRT) and Estonia (ERR). “We are delighted to partner with broadcast partners throughout the world to showcase this incredible athlete and his sport to global audiences,” said Sebastian Burkhardt, head of partnerships and commercial strategy at Red Bull Studios.
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Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Mipcom Cannes, the international TV conference, opened on a solemn note with market director Lucy Smith paying tribute to the “innocent victims in Israel and Gaza.” Smith addressed the reverberations of the Israel-Hamas conflict at the market and within the industry. Out of the 70 Israeli industry executives who had registered for Mipcom, only a few were able to attend due to the devastation brought by Hamas’ attack on Oct.
EXCLUSIVE: Mathieu Kassovitz has quit the Paris Has Fallen television series citing creative differences. He has been replaced by Spiral actor Tewfik Jallab.
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Bullish Scotland boss Steve Clarke arrived here in Seville and then challenged his players to grab the point that will stun Europe and take them to Germany 2024.
Dozens of delegates from the Israeli TV sector will not travel to Mipcom Cannes next week following the Hamas-led attack on the country’s civilians over the weekend.
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Joanna Page has opened up about a life-threatening situation she faced when she was a young actress - being held hostage by a taxi driver who demanded nude photographs.The Gavin and Stacey star, 46, was filming a costume drama in South Africa when the incident occurred. She revealed that she'd been given a driver and chaperone and told not to go out alone but left the hotel by herself one evening. Speaking to the Times, she added: “I was dropped off at the hotel and told not to go out anywhere alone, but one night I was so bored in the hotel I decided to take a taxi to go out shopping.
It looks like Justin Theroux‘s relationship with new girlfriend Nicole Brydon Bloom is getting more serious as they just spent time with her parents!
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Fans have been left wowed after Alesha Dixon shared pictures of a wild 48 hours in Paris. The singer and Britain's Got Talent judge visited the French capital with friends.
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Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The 2023 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion, the project market that accompanies the Golden Horse film festival and awards in Taiwan in November, has laid out a huge 64-title selection for its 2023 edition. These include 39 film projects at various stages of development and financing; a further seven works in progress; and the 18-previously announced series at project stage.