Maxime Saada Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

French Canal+ Group’s operation to take full control of African media and entertainment giant MultiChoice appears to be moving forward with both parties announcing they had finalized the terms of the mandatory offer in a joint statement on Monday.

France’s Canal+ has upped a buyout offer for African TV and streaming giant MultiChoice to around $1.77B.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Canal+ Group chairman and CEO Maxime Saada, who was honored at Mipcom with the Variety Vanguard Award Monday, underscored how the experience of the past informs the company’s future strategy, which includes an emphasis on aggregation and a ramping up of in-house production. He also explained why he believes his company “owes so much to Netflix,” but fears Amazon and YouTube.

Canal+ Chairman and CEO Maxime Saada has recalled how he travelled to Los Gatos with an olive branch six years ago.

Mipcom, change is in the air yet again on both sides of the Atlantic. In the U.S., the largest media conglomerates are all in rebuilding mode, even the mighty Disney.

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.

Variety Staff Follow Us on Twitter Maxime Saada, the chair and CEO of Canal+ Group, will receive the Variety Vanguard Award at the Mipcom international content sales conference set for Oct. 16-19 in Cannes. The award recognizes television industry leaders who have made a significant contribution to the global business of entertainment.

PCCW and Canal+ have announced a strategic partnership through which the French media giant will become a significant minority shareholder in PCCW’s Asian streaming service Viu. 

Thomas Follin, the former director general of shuttered French streaming platform Salto, has joined France’s Canal+ Group in the role of Chief Global Transformation Officer.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Apple and Canal+ have signed a landmark deal that will bring Apple TV+ to all Canal+ subscribers in France, along with some other European territories. The deal is different from the aggregation agreements that Canal+ has in place with other streamers such as Disney+ and Netflix, whose offers are being accessible as part of the French pay TV operator’s bundle. Under the pact, Apple TV+ will be available at no extra cost to Canal+ subs from April 20. Canal+ customers can seamlessly and easily access the films and series of Apple TV+ directly on their existing set-top box — with no separate app or subscription necessary. This is a multi-territory agreement for France, French speaking-Switzerland, Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

Apple TV+ has struck a multi-year content deal with Canal+ in France and will become available to all Canal+ subs in the nation plus other European territories.

French pay-TV giant Canal+ went on the offensive at a special event in Paris on Wednesday, promoting its historic role as the biggest supporter of local and international cinema in France and laying out its past track record and future plans. 

K.J. Yossman Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh has been upped to deputy CEO of the Canal+ Group. She has been with the company since 2008, when she first joined Studiocanal. She has previously held the positions of head of international sales and managing director of Studiocanal U.K. In 2019 she became CEO of Studiocanal, which is the production, distribution and sales subsidiary of Canal+ Group, and in February of this year was appointed to Canal+ Group’s management board. Before joining the group Marsh, who has almost 20 years experience in the industry, worked at Tele Images Productions (Marathon group) in the international sales department and TF1, where she was international sales manager.

Long-serving Studiocanal exec, Anna Marsh, has been appointed Deputy CEO of Canal+ Group. Marsh joined the company’s production, distribution and international sales subsidiary, Studiocanal, in 2008 where she held such titles as Head of International Sales and Managing Director of Studiocanal UK, before being appointed CEO of Studiocanal in 2019. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+ Group, the Vivendi-owned French TV group, has won its court case against TF1 after being sued by latter following a dispute over carriage fees. The ruling was issued on Sept. 22 by the business court of Paris. Chaired by Maxime Saada (pictured), Canal+ was previously distributing TF1 and its channels TFX, TF1 Séries Films and LCI as part of its TNT Sat paybox platform which traditionally gives access to all French channels. But when their pact was about to expire on Aug. 31, TF1 tried to renegotiate the terms of the agreements and asked Canal+ for pay 50% more for the right to distribute its free-to-air channels. Canal+ refused and subsequently stopped distributing them, leading TF1 to sue the banner.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Canal+, France’s leading pay TV group, has signed distribution deals with Universal and Sony to ramp up its programming of U.S. movies. Under the pact, Canal+ now has access to the studios’ new films six months after their releases. Sony’s “Spiderman : No Way Home” is currently being broadcast on Canal+’s linear pay TV channels, along with its transactional VOD platform, My Canal. The news was half-revealed by Maxime Saada, Canal+ Group’s chair and CEO, during the company’s upbeat press conference on Sept. 14, which was held at their posh headquarters in Paris. Saada, who recently joined the management board of Vivendi, Canal Plus Group’s parent company, said the outfit already boasts partnerships with Fox, Disney and Warner, as well as Paramount.

French major Canal Plus has finalized an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Netherlands-based broadcaster SPI International.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVivendi-owned pay TV group Canal Plus has signed a pact with France’s film guilds on Thursday to invest €600 million ($680 million) in French and European films from 2022 to 2024.Under the agreement, Canal Plus will have to dedicate 85% of the $680 million to French films over the next three years.

French pay TV group Canal Plus will be free for the next few weeks or months during the country’s lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. For a number of days, France’s theaters, shops, restaurants and schools have been shut down, and the president, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to unveil even more drastic measures, such as ordering the nation’s total confinement, this evening.

Canal Plus and the international network beIN Sports have closed a deal that will offer the Vivendi-owned pay-TV service exclusive distribution and sub-licensing rights to beIN content in France for a period of five years.