French media giant Vivendi is taking full control of Canal+, with Vincent Bolloré appointed as chairman of the supervisory board and the pay TV group’s long-serving president exiting.

Vivendi boss
Vincent Bolloré

Bertrand Méheut is leaving after 13 years with Canal+ to be replaced by current Bolloré Media president Jean-Christophe Thiery. Vivendi chairman Bolloré will replace Arnaud de Puyfontaine as Canal+ chair.

Méheut was responsible for the pay TV group recovering from its financial troubles near the start of his reign and will continue to work with the broadcaster as a consultant.

His is the latest departure in a bloody summer for Canal+’s longest-serving executives as Vivendi and Bolloré have increased their stake and control. Vivendi has increased its 48.48% share in Canal+ to 93.6%, according to its first-half financial statement yesterday, and is trying to buy the remaining 6.4%.

There have already been numerous departures of senior and long-serving Canal+ staff. Bolloré’s growing influence at Canal+ has resulted in internal conflicts and has led to the departure of respected CEO Rodolphe Belmer ^[1] as well as entertainment and free-to-air channels director Ara Aprikian ^[2].

Vivendi stressed in yesterday’s statement that Canal+ will continue to invest more than ever in premium exclusive content, especially in original drama series, and will also make a move into original primetime entertainment.

Canal+’s group revenues improved by 2.5% in the first half this year to €2.73bn (US$3.07bn), with its total number of subscribers growing by 176,000 to 15.5 million.

While Canal+ international operations revenues improved by 9%, its French pay TV revenues were slightly down due to increased competition, Vivendi said – with US SVoD giant Netflix now improving its performance in France after a slow start.