Canal+ on Wednesday unveiled its focus on improving profits in its European business and a “turnaround” at recently acquired African pay-TV giant MultiChoice, including a focus on profitable growth and “reigniting subscriber growth” after recent news that it was shuttering its streamer Showmax. Reporting its full-year 2025 results, the parent company of StudioCanal also revealed two big AI partnerships and an “ambitious new partnership with Sky to develop English-speaking drama,” saying: “Sky and Canal+ share the same storytelling DNA and drive to develop globally successful IP.”
On the AI side, starting in June, Canal+ said it will “roll out a major evolution of the Canal+ App using the technology from OpenAI to power content search and discovery,” Canal+ said. “This new feature represents a major breakthrough in delivering a more intuitive, intelligent, and personalized user experience.”
In addition, Google Cloud and Canal+ struck a multi-year partnership focused on artificial intelligence. Starting in June, Canal+ will deploy Google Cloud’s “latest generative AI technologies across European and African markets where the Canal+ App is available, unlocking a new era of creative possibilities for the group,” the company said, promising “tailor‑made entertainment experience fueled by Google Cloud content video indexing.” Using Google Cloud’s technologies will help the company “accelerate the content video indexing of its extensive content library,” it explained.
The Sky-Canal+ pact was on Wednesday described by the partners as “a strategic co‑commissioning partnership to develop premium, English‑language scripted content, bringing together complementary creative expertise, shared investment and international reach to support ambitious storytelling.”
Sky and Canal+ said they will work together to develop a minimum of two projects per year over an initial three-year term and co-finance green-lit projects, providing “a stage for both established and emerging talent.” They will start developing the first slate of “tentpole projects” in the coming months, highlighting: “The collaborative model is designed to support wide distribution, reaching audiences across Europe and beyond, and providing a strong route to market for U.K.‑led stories with international resonance.”
Said Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada: “Our previous co-productions, like The Young Pope and Zero Zero Zero, are great examples of what we can do together through this complementary and ambitious new partnership.”
Group CEO Sky Dana Strong emphasized: “We are excited to build on our strong working relationship with Canal+ to create this partnership. Sky and Canal+ share a strong track record in creating premium drama, and through this collaboration, we will bring our creative ambition and expertise together at scale.”
Said Saada: “We begin 2026 from a position of strength, clarity and confidence. We now move into the execution phase of our strategy.”
He continued: “In Europe, we will continue to focus on improving profitability. In Africa, we will ensure we are well-positioned to benefit from the continent’s growth potential and turn around MultiChoice. We expect to list Canal+ on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange soon, in what will be a significant moment for our company.”
In content, the firm will continue “enhancing our entertainment platform and content mix, as we have done with the acquisition of a majority stake in [Italian producer and distributor] Lucky Red. And, at the group level, Canal+ “will capture synergies generated from our new scale, maintain our focus on cost discipline, and deploy AI tools to improve our operational efficiency and entertainment platform, through our newly announced partnerships with Google Cloud and OpenAI,” the CEO concluded.
Full-year 2025 financials met or exceeded management’s expectations when excluding the acquisition of MultiChoice, Canal+ also said on Wednesday. For 2026, it forecast €735 million in adjusted EBIT and more than €250 million in free cash flow, “before the payment of a VAT settlement and other restructuring costs.”