The French pay-TV group Canal Plus, owned by Vivendi, will enter Romanian market following the acquisition of its European rival M7 for about EUR 1 billion from private equity firm Astorg.
The acquisition would expand Canal Plus’ presence on the continent to the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and Romania, the group said in a statement cited by Reuters.
M7’s annual revenues amount to EUR 400 million. Its acquisition would bring Canal Plus’ total number of subscribers closer to 20 million.
M7 Group is a media company that controls broadcasters in Austria (AustriaSat), TeleSat Numerique and TV Vlaanderen (Belgium), SkyLink (Czech Republic and Slovakia), KabelKiosk (Germany), CanalDigitaal, Stipte, Fibernederland and Online.nl (the Netherlands).
Last year, M7 bought the DTH operator Focus Sat in Romania from Liberty Global.