C More Entertainment

"C More" redirects here. For C-MORE, the American organisation, see Center for Microbial Oceanography: Research and Education.
C More Entertainment
Launched 1 September 1997 (as Canal+)
4 September 2012 (as C More)
Owned by TV4 Gruppen, Telenor[1]
Slogan See more, Feel More.
Formerly called Filmnet
Canal+
Website cmore.se

C More Entertainment is a pay TV company that used to operate as Canal+. It targets the Nordic countries and has a separate channel in Sweden (C More Film).

As Canal+, it was launched in 1997 by French Pay-TV operator Canal+ on the Direct To Home platform Canal Digital, and later on Cable Television. In 2003, two private equity firms, Baker Capital and Nordic Capital, acquired 100% of Canal+ Television from the international media conglomerate Vivendi Universal. At the same time, Nordic Canal+ was renamed C More Entertainment. It retained the right to use the name “Canal+”. On February 9, 2005, SBS Broadcasting Group announced the acquisition of C More Entertainment. On June 16, 2008, Swedish TV4 Gruppen announced that it had acquired C More Entertainment from German ProSiebenSat.1 Media for €320 million. In May 2010 Telenor bought 35% of the shares in C More Entertainment from TV4 Gruppen for SEK 787 million.

The main competitors of C More Entertainment in the Nordic countries are Viasat Film and Viasat Sport, which belong to Modern Times Group. Canal+ was renamed "C More" in September 2012.

Since 30 October 2012, the C More channels have not been sold as a standalone package in Finland, but are bundled in MTV3 Total (later MTV Total) group of channels.[2]

Business model

The premium pay-TV concept used by C More Entertainment is based on exclusive broadcasting rights on sports, movies and TV series.

Sports rights

Film and TV-series content providers

In 2011, C More Entertainment had exclusive first-run deals for feature films and TV series with Fox Entertainment Group, DreamWorks, Home Box Office, MGM, Nonstop Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sandrew Metronome, Svensk Filmindustri, Warner Bros. Pictures and Zentropa.

Programming

C More Entertainment operated over 20 SDTV channels in the Nordic countries and eleven High-Definition in September 2012.

C More Entertainment has its origins in the Filmnet channel that started in 1985. In the early 1990s, Filmnet became two channels: Filmnet Plus and Filmnet The Complete Movie Channel. They were later rebranded as Filmnet 1 and Filmnet 2.

Canal+ bought Filmnet in 1996 and the two channels were renamed on September 1, 1997. Filmnet 1 became "Canal+" with localized versions for the different Nordic countries and Filmnet 2 became the pan-Nordic "Canal+ Gul/Canal+ Kulta" (English: "Canal+ Yellow", following the colour naming pattern used by Canal+ in France and others countries).

A third channel "Canal+ Blå/Canal+ Sininen" (Blue) was started on September 3, 1999. Another channel, "Canal+ Zap", was launched on September 22, 2001, allowing cable and satellite viewers to choose an alternative match to watch during fixtures of the FA Premier League and National Hockey League.

A major overhaul was done on May 1, 2004. The three colour-coded mixed channels were abandoned for four themed channels. The Canal+ line-up the consisted of the main Canal+ channel, Canal+ Film 1 and Canal+ Film 2 showing new movies, the all-sports channel Canal+ Sport, and C More Film, a channel showing older films. C More Film was the first channel to use the C More name, which replaced the Canal+ name in September 2012.

The line-up was extended on September 1, 2005 when Canal+ Film 3, C More Film 2, and the first HD channel for the Nordic region, C More HD, were launched. Canal+ Film 1 was renamed "Canal+ Film". Canal+ Sport was changed. Instead of being a pan-Nordic channel, country specific channels were launched. Canal+, which had been country-specific, became pan-Nordic. At the same time IPTV operators in association with satellite operator Canal Digital launched an interactive VOD service called "Canal+ Play", accessed from the customer's set-top box, letting the viewers watch any seasons from any show ever broadcast on Canal+ and any movie that is showing on the channels. On satellite it has since been merged to the Canal Digital Go service, covering every channel on the platform and also available without a box online (much like its British equivalent Sky Go).

On November 1, 2006 the Canal+ package was changed once again. The C More Film channels were removed and merged with Canal+ Film 2, the main Canal+ channel was removed and replaced by bonus channel Canal+ Mix, showing films, series, documentaries and movies. They also introduced a new sports channel called Canal+ Sport 2. Some channels' content was kept intact but the looks were renamed: Canal+ Film became "Canal+ Film 1", Canal+ Sport became Canal+ Sport 1", and C More HD became "Canal+ HD". The customers used to have to subscribe to all the channels, but with the relaunch, the customers were for the first time allowed to subscribe only to the sports or movie channels. The "Canal+ Film" package consisted of Canal+ Film 1, 2 and 3 and "Canal+ Sport" consisted of Canal+ Sport 1 and 2. The full package was called "Canal+ Total" and contained Canal+ Mix and Canal+ HD as a bonus.

A second HD channel, Canal+ Sport HD, launched in February 2007. The original HD channel was called "Canal+ Film HD" from that on. In September 2007 a pay-per-view sports service called "C Sports" was launched in Sweden, Denmark and Norway - it was never launched in Finland or available in Finnish but could also be used there. The service showed single matches from Canal+ channels on a PPV basis, but soon after launch customers could also subscribe to a season ticket, allowing them to view all matches from the chosen league during the season. In 2009 it was expanded to cover an archive of all shown matches and the ability to watch live streams of all Canal+ Sport channels. The service is still available in all countries except for Finland, where the content of the service is now available through parent company MTV3's VOD service Katsomo.

Another overhaul happened on November 1, 2007. The movie and series channels were all renamed and repositioned into different categories. Canal+ Film 1 became Canal"+ First" which premiered the films and Canal+ Film 2 was replaced by "Canal+ Hits" which broadcasts older films. Canal+ Film 3 and Canal+ Mix were renamed "Canal+ Action" and "Canal+ Drama", and were joined by Canal+ Comedy which broadcasts movies in different genres. Canal+ Sport 1 and 2 kept their names, but were joined by Canal+ Sport Extra which time-shared with the pornographic channel Canal 69.

In July 2009, C More Entertainment launched a new channel broadcasting sports and other programming for men. Canal 9, is provided for free for Canal+ Sport and Canal+ Total customers on cable, satellite and IPTV and it shares many sports rights with Canal+ channels, along its independently purchased rights commissioned by TV4 Gruppen. The station was modelled on the Finnish MTV3 Max, launched in 2006 and broadcast by TV4 Group's sister company MTV Media. Later there have been discussions to rename MTV3 Max as Canal 9 Suomi In November 2011 Canal 9 also launched in Norway.

On October 1, 2009, Canal+ launched the SF-kanalen, a channel which broadcasts Swedish movies and mini series from the libraries of Svensk Filmindustri. After TV4's purchase of the company, Canal+ and Svensk Filmindustri became part of the same corporation. SF-kanalen replaced Canal 69, which ceased operations the day before.

Canal+ is widely known for changing its channel packages from time to time and yet another change was made on April 1, 2010, when Canal+ Comedy was replaced by Canal+ Series. Its type is the same as Canal+ Hits, but it shows series from 8pm to midnight instead of movies, while from midnight to 8pm it shows various movies.

More changes happened on May 14, 2010, when Canal+ announced the launch of three new sports channels named "Canal+ Sport 3", "Canal+ Football" and "Canal+ Hockey", of which the first is only available in Norway. At the same time many new sports rights were announced. Later that year Canal+ announced it would launch a second Finnish-language sports channel in December, namely Canal+ Aitio (literally Canal+ Skybox) due to still retaining the rights to FA Premier League and UEFA Champions League unlike other countries. The new channel allowed broadcasting a second simultaneous match from the Premier League, for which they had to use FTA channels until the launch of Aitio. At the same time they also renamed the Finnish version of Canal+ Sport 1 as "Canal+ Urheilu". HD versions of the channels have since appeared on all platforms.

In June 1, 2011, Canal+ announced the launch of two new film and series channels named "Canal+ Family" and Canal+ Emotion". Canal+ Family consists of family-oriented movies and CBeebies series. Canal+ Emotion replaced Canal+ Drama.

In May 2012, C More Entertainment announced it would rename its whole output as C More. While most channels keep their old names (apart from replacing the Canal+ suffix with C More), some sports channels changed names - mainly Canal+ Sport 2 was changed to "C More Tennis", Canal+ Sport Extra into "C More Extreme", and Canal+ Extra channels were renamed as "C More Live" channels. The only channels surviving the rebrand are Canal 9 channels of Denmark and Norway and the Danish Canal 8 Sport, which was launched in August 2012 as the successor of Canal+ Sport 1 Denmark. C More Entertainment also announced that it would add documentaries as a new type of programming to complement their film programming.

On 30 October 2012, C More channels in Finland were merged with MTV3 Kanavapaketti to form MTV3 Total. C More Urheilu (Sport), C More Aitio and C More Premier HD were renamed MTV3 MAX Sport 1, MTV3 MAX Sport 2 and MTV3 MAX Premier HD, respectively. The package was renamed MTV Total in the corporate-wide rebrand at MTV Oy in 2013.

In October 2012 C More in Sweden launched Filmnet, a new online streaming service, to compete with Netflix and HBO Nordic in the Nordic market. It was in the beginning of 2013 also made available in Norway and Finland, in Denmark C More cooperate with YouSee on similar service called YouBio. The Filmnet-branded services were moved to main C More websites on 30 June 2015.

Television channel lineup

Movies and Entertainment Group

Sports Group

OnDemand Services

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.cmore.se/about C More.se
  2. ↑ http://www.mtv.fi/yritys/medialle/tiedotteet/media-artikkeli/mtv-media-uudistaa-maksu-tv-tarjontaansa/5113958

External links

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