Canal Executive: Xbox Deal Key to Attracting Younger Audience

[Satellite News 08-05-09] Canal+ hopes its recent deal with Microsoft to make its content available through the Xbox 360 video games console will help it gain stronger audiences, particularly among the younger parts of the French population, Frederic Vincent, business development director for Canal+ told Satellite News
    Vincent said the deal, announced in June enables Canal+ to expose its content to new target audiences. “It is good for us to be on these new distribution platforms, which are popular with certain parts of the population. There are now new ways of consuming content, which are not the traditional linear forms. For example, there are very innovative ways to view soccer on the Xbox. This deal means you will be able to interact with other Xbox users watching the same match,” he said.
    Canal+, which also runs Canalsat, a DTH platform in France, is eyeing up a market with a potential size of 1.5 million Xbox users in France alone and a majority of that number is connected to the Internet. “Overall penetration of Canal+ in France is around 30 percent. So, I think we could say that more than 30 percent of this Xbox audience could have access to our these new on-demand offers. We haven’t set any objectives in terms of first year performance for the service. It is quite a new product that we are exposing to our audience, and also quite new for us to have this content on a games console … it is difficult to forecast the usage of this kind of project,” said Vincent.
    Neil Thompson, senior regional director of Microsoft in Northern Europe, told Satellite News that the video game console consumer market will yield results for satellite. “While video is certainly a compelling area that we think consumers value, the gaming and social interactive experiences are going to be core as to why people buy games consoles. If you going to be competitive in today’s world, you need a very rounded entertainment offering, so from that sense, video is a piece of a puzzle you need to be offering. I think everybody who is in the entertainment business understands there is a level of convergence happening between the world of gaming, the world of music, TV, movies, etc. In terms of what people offer on platform, a lot of people are going to migrate around those elements and figure out where is the compelling difference of where I can stand out,” said Thompson.
    Canal’s partnership with Microsoft will initially focus on the on-demand services from Canal+, CanalPlay and Foot+. Ultimately, it will be extended to other products of the Canal+ Group as well as other Microsoft platforms. Viewers will access to thousands of movies, a television catch-up service, as well as access to premier league French soccer, which Canal+ holds the rights for.
    However, Microsoft did not grant exclusivity to Canal or its partner in the United Kingdom, BskyB, leaving both sides open to do other similar type deals with other video games consoles providers. “We could do other deals to have our content on other platforms, for example. We are talking with everyone and we already have a deal with Sony to have content on the PSP. We think the deal with Microsoft is a bigger one as there is Canal Plus, which is our anytime service as well as CanalPlay, and FootPlus. So, it is a more comprehensive package,” said Vincent.
    Diversifying the range of platforms that Canal+ can reach is a challenge the company is currently tackling. The broadcaster recently launched a concept called ‘CanalReady,’ which comprises content that Canal will be able to deliver to any platform. Vincent said that the company is currently working to make CanalReady compliant with DVB-T. “We want to use this initiative to reach the widest possible audience,” he said.

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Canal Executive: Xbox Deal Key to Attracting Younger Audience

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