SES and CANAL+ Extend Partnership to Distribute Television Content Through 2040
Key Facts
SES and CANAL+ have extended their multi-year strategic partnership for television content distribution through 2040, according to the available summary of the October 27, 2026 announcement. The extension means SES satellite capacity will continue to be available to distribute CANAL+ content over the coming years. But the summary does not specify the value of the new arrangement or report any financial impact, leaving no details with which to estimate its contribution to SES revenue or backlog. The summary also does not establish that the companies signed a new agreement, describing what happened as an extension of the partnership under a multi-year agreement. The announcement comes against the backdrop of a commercial relationship that SES said began more than three decades ago.
SES said in a 2020 statement that CANAL+ had been its partner since 1995 and that agreements that year covered three orbital positions. At the time, it said CANAL+ would continue using satellite capacity to broadcast its channel packages. This history provides context for the length of the relationship, while the summary of the 2026 announcement does not say whether the new extension covers the same three orbital positions. What can be confirmed differs from the details disclosed in previous arrangements; the available information does not describe the capacity or positions included in the extension through 2040. The new announcement therefore confirms only that the partnership will continue over a long-term horizon.
In 2020, SES said its satellite services delivered CANAL+ content to more than 10 million subscribers. The figure provides a historical indication of the audience served by the company’s satellite infrastructure at the time, but it does not represent CANAL+’s current subscriber count or specify how many people will be covered by the new extension. The measure also refers to subscribers reached by SES services, not viewers, an important distinction when describing the distribution base. The available information provides no updated figure for subscribers connected to the satellite services. The historical figure therefore cannot be used to estimate the scope of the agreement through 2040.
The cooperation also expanded in the nature of its services; in 2021, the companies broadened the partnership to include terrestrial services alongside satellite services. CANAL+ said at the time that expanding cooperation to terrestrial services aimed to reach the widest possible audience with the highest reliability. This shows that the relationship in earlier stages was not limited to satellite capacity alone. But the available summary of the 2026 announcement does not say whether terrestrial services are included in the new extension or specify their scope. The announcement also provides no operational details on the markets or packages the arrangement will cover through 2040.
Under details of arrangements SES announced in 2020, ASTRA orbital positions were used to distribute CANAL+’s pay-TV package in France and TNTSAT services, alongside M7 platforms in the Benelux and Central Europe and the CANAL+ Afrique package. The company said the multi-transponder contract renewed at the time ran through the end of the decade, with options to add capacity and for further extensions. SES also said that renewal added more than 230 million euros to its secured backlog in 2020. That figure applies only to the 2020 agreement; the available information provides no value for the extension announced in 2026 or says whether it adds to backlog. The new announcement also does not specify the distribution markets, capacity or options it covers.