PARIS and SUNNYVALE, Calif.—Canal+ and Google Cloud have announced a new multi-year deal and partnership focusing on artificial intelligence solutions for content discovery, personalization, production and other features.

Starting in June 2026, Canal+ will deploy Google Cloud's latest generative AI technologies across European and African markets where the Canal+ App is available to create tailor‑made entertainment experiences.

"We are pleased to leverage Google Cloud's most advanced AI technologies to drive Canal+'s technical innovation,” explained Stéphane Baumier, CTO of Canal+. “Building on a long-standing collaboration with Google, this strategic partnership paves the way for limitless possibilities. Content video indexing for Canal+ at scale gives the group a significant edge, notably by enabling us to deliver sharper discovery and truly enhanced personalized journeys on the Canal+ App across all our markets. Creativity is the cornerstone of Canal+'s content production. We are excited to push creative boundaries by providing creators with tools that enable AI-generated video scenes, impossible to produce using traditional methods."

Matt Renner, president, chief revenue officer of Google Cloud added that "the entertainment industry is at a pivotal inflection point where the intersection of creativity and compute power defines market leadership. Our deepened collaboration with Canal+ is a testament to a shared culture of relentless innovation. By leveraging Google Cloud's generative AI technologies, Canal+ is not just adopting tools; they are architecting the future of media and fundamentally transforming the entertainment landscape on a global scale."

Using Google Cloud's technologies, Canal+ will accelerate the content video indexing of its extensive content library. The new content classification will provide the global media and entertainment group with an in-depth multimodal database combining sound, video, and text data.

This increased granularity in content classification, will enable smarter, more personalized content recommendations on the homepage of the Canal+ App, matching each subscriber's preferences according to their viewing habits. This will make it easier than ever for subscribers to discover even more content they love on Canal+.

Canal+'s multimodal database of video-content will also pave the way for a wide range of opportunities, from enhanced content discovery to entirely new business models, the two companies reported.

In addition, Canal+ will also use Veo3, Google's new genAI video technology, to provide its production partners and creative teams with tools that will unlock the creative ambitions of their talent, for instance, previsualizing a scene before shooting it or recreating historical moments from a single archival photo.

The partnership guarantees a very secure technical environment, where rights, assets ownership are deeply protected. Using these tools & platform, Canal+'s partners will have full control of their production and editorial decision, with opportunities to try new approaches while ensuring cost control, thanks to significantly shorter experimentation cycles. This secure technical platform and tools will be made available to production who wish to use it in films supported by Canal+.

LONDON—Vizrt has introduced Managed Services, a way for its customers to focus on storytelling while the company handles the operational complexity behind the scenes.

Vizrt Managed Services supports broadcasters, live event producers and enterprises with dedicated assistance, operational proficiency and technology needed to meet these demands and connect with viewers, it said.

“In live production, you only get one shot to make an impact,” Vizrt CEO Rohit Nagarajan said. “With Vizrt Managed Services, we take care of the operational heavy lifting with our team of experts so our customers can focus on what moves the needle: creating standout content, reaching new audiences and driving real impact at scale.”

Vizrt Managed Services addresses five areas:

• Application management services, which include proactive monitoring, maintenance and management of Vizrt and selected third-party systems. 
• Creative services, which cover design, creation and management of custom graphics, templates and visual assets that elevate brand identity and drive viewer engagement.
• Sports and events operations, which include end-to-end support for sports and live event productions with on-site and remote services to help teams deliver seamless, broadcast-quality content. 
• Corporate communications, which combines broadcast-quality tools with complete production services for internal and external communications from concept development through delivery. 
• Private infrastructure cloud, which includes leasing on–premises high-performance hardware infrastructure through a flexible cost model. 

During a recent rugby match broadcast by French broadcaster Canal+, Vizrt was behind the scenes managing creation and delivery of dynamic augmented reality (AR) graphics, the company said.

“At Canal+, we want to deliver the best coverage of live sports, and that includes unique visual elements that engage the fans watching from anywhere,” said Christophe Schatz, head of sports TV production, Canal+. “Collaborating again with Vizrt, now with Managed Services, we’re looking forward to exploring new ways to drive innovation in storytelling.”

More information is available on the company’s website.

PARIS—Ateme has announced that Canal+ has deployed Ateme's NEA solution to power TV+, its new streaming offering. The offering allows users to access more than 80 live and catch-up TV channels, a selection of  Canal+  SVOD content, and 8 digital channels all in one app. 

For the new service, Canal+ leveraged Ateme’s NEA solution for manifest manipulation and dynamic ad Insertion in live streaming and VOD-to-Live workflow. With the solution, Canal+ can aggregate linear and VOD content from the various channels of the group, and repurpose them in the new streaming offering. 

“With the launch of this new service, Canal+ is positioning itself more than ever as the reference in terms of content aggregation, in particular by using its own large content portfolio to launch new channels,” said Philippe Rivas, platform engineering manager at Canal+. “We are thrilled to collaborate with the Ateme team on this project. The NEA solution we co-created ensures smooth and efficient workflow operations and totally reinvents the way to build and distribute OTT channels while maintaining a high-quality end-user experience.”

This new collaboration builds on a long-standing partnership between Canal+ and Ateme. Over the years, Ateme has been integral to Canal+’s transformation across the delivery chain, contributing to advancements such as high-quality video compression, low-latency OTT streaming, multi-device packaging, and, most recently, dynamic ad insertion, the companies reported. 

“We are very proud to continue supporting Canal+ in its innovation journey,” said Remi Beaudouin, chief strategy officer at Ateme. “The TV industry is undergoing significant changes, and Canal+, through its brand and technological leadership, consistently demonstrates its ability to adapt to these changes and provide new ways of consuming video content.”

LOS ANGELES—Anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) says it has shut down Extreme-down, which it says is France’s second most popular illegal streaming and direct download site.  

ACE said it had located the operator in Houmt Souk, Tunisia, contacted the operator who subsequently ceased  operations and transferred all domains to ACE. The domains now redirect to the “Watch Legally” page on the ACE website.  The service had more than 14 million visitors each month. 

“Thanks to ACE’s rapidly expanding global network, we are in a better position than ever to act decisively against illegal piracy operators in all markets across the world,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief of the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Extreme-down offered a large library of TV series and movies in French and original versions; we counted more than 40,000 movies and TV series episodes affecting ACE members. That library is now closed.” 

French premium television channel providers and ACE members CANAL+ and France Televisions worked closely with ACE and local authorities on this action. 

“CANAL+ Group has fought content piracy for years and, as a member of ACE, we are particularly pleased with the takedown of this notorious illegal website,” said Celine Boyer, Global Head of Content Protection at CANAL+ Group. “The elimination of this website is a massive success for the protection of rights holders in French-speaking countries.” 

“The damaging effects of piracy cannot be overstated, especially for a global public service media company like ours,” said Nathalie Bobineau, Senior Vice President of International Development for France Televisions. “We applaud the efforts of ACE in their fight to defend copyright and successfully close down a piracy operation of this magnitude. ACE is currently the only organization able to give powerful and efficient support to our relentless fight against piracy worldwide, and we will continue to work with ACE to combat illegal operations that threaten legal content creators.”  

PARIS—EVS has announced that the Canal+ Group has deployed an IP-based infrastructure built on EVS end-to-end solutions in its new Canal+ ONE headquarters, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. 

The installation concentrates Canal+ Group’s master control room (MCR), playout and production workflows into one building as part of an effort to streamline its operations, reduce redundancies and increase automation. 

“Our relocation into the new HQ gave us the opportunity to rethink the way we work and completely transform our workflows,” said Pierre Maillat, head of technical studies & architecture at Canal+ Group. “The idea was to accelerate our SDI to IP transition, limit as much as possible the use of hardware and move towards more software-defined and cloud-based solutions, which offer the scalability and flexibility needed to optimize our operations while benefitting from future-ready workflows.”

To deliver on this vision, EVS teamed up with global media services company Red Bee Media to build a new IP-enabled production infrastructure based on EVS’ LiveCeption, MediaCeption and MediaInfra solutions. 

The setup consists of several XT-VIA servers for multi-source ingesting and delivering fast turn-around productions in any format and resolution. Supporting a high-speed, 100GbE live IP fabric connectivity, the servers work in 1080p with the ability to easily switch to UHD in the future if needed, EVS reported. 

This LiveCeption workflow also integrates the IP-based LSM-VIA replay system, giving operators direct access to all the content on the network and allowing them to focus on delivering compelling live replays and highlights much faster.

The conversion and processing of the signals are performed by EVS’ Neuron Network Attached Processor, which also acts as the main tool for SDI/IP bridging and a firewall. Being able to activate a wide-ranging number of different functionalities from the same hardware, will contribute to helping Canal+ Group reduce rack occupancy and power consumption, the companies said. 

Interfacing with the entire infrastructure of Canal+ Group, the EVS Cerebrum broadcast control and monitoring system offers advanced visual control for production and flexible orchestration of all devices for the engineering teams.

Finally, on the MediaCeption asset management side, users can access remotely a fully virtualized, multi-site IPDirector system to browse, control, edit and playout content from easy-to-use interfaces. With its open, modular architecture, IPDirector can be adapted to any production environment and allows for easy integration and media exchange with any third-party system, EVS said. 

“EVS has worked as a transforming partner with the Canal+ Group for over 25 years, helping them to adapt to new live production realities while supporting their ambitions in terms of program quality,” Nicolas Bourdon, CMO at EVS. “This project combines all layers of EVS’ live video creation frontends, central production platform and resources management based on a highly reliable recording and processing infrastructure. It is a clear example of our EVS Balanced Computing vision that optimally integrates on premises equipment with software-defined and cloud-based solutions.”

“EVS has helped us migrate to new technologies many times in the past and has done it again for our transition into the world of IP,” added Ralph Atlan, CTO, operations and executive production at Canal+ Group. “In a very short amount of time, both EVS and Red Bee have managed to implement a comprehensive IP-based workflow that will allow us to significantly optimize our live operations, transform our workflow capabilities and deliver compelling media experiences our audience expects.”

For more information on EVS and its complete range of live video technology for broadcast and new media productions, visit EVS.com.

NEVADA CITY, CALIF.—Telestream’s Wirecast Gear live streaming platform is going abroad as the company has announced the purchase of eight systems by Paris-based broadcasters Canal+. The systems began to be deployed in May.

Canal+ was able to use the Wirecast Gear system to stream live from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Wirecast Gear is a portable computer workstation configured for live event production and streaming. It is pre-installed with Wirecast Pro live streaming production software; comes with four video input ports with HDMI or SDI options; is built on a Windows 10 Pro 64-bit platform with i7 Intel processors, 16GB of memory and a 250GB system drive; it also includes multiple network connectors, USB-C ports and digital display outputs.

Features of the Wirecast Gear system have the ability to stream; multi-camera live switching; mix live camera sources; instant replay; playlists; built-in titles; chroma key support; virtual sets; and live scoreboards.

Canal+ has used its Wirecast Gear systems to stream live footage from events like the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, America’s Cup Sailing Race series, and the Champions League Final. The events were streamed to Dailymotion and Facebook.

BOULOGNE, FRANCE—A new facility-wide network for the Canal Factory facility of Canal+ has been installed, featuring a number of Solid State Logic systems. The facility has added four large-scale SSL System T broadcast audio production systems, an SSL L500 Live console and SSL Network I/O interfaces. All of these systems are connected through a high-capacity, redundant Dante AoIP network that shares the Canal Factory IP infrastructure.

The pair of 64-fader, 3.5-bay main System T control surfaces are split amongst Canal Factory’s two audio control rooms, as well as PC-based T-SOLSA control software with a 16-fader panel connected to one Tempest Audio Engine, plus an additional 16-fader 1.5-bay pre-mix/back-up surface connected to another Tempest engine. Dante system-wide routing can be controlled directly from the consoles, or through the control system panel in each room.

SSL’s OCP network handles communication between the Tempest Engines, which are located in the facility’s machine room. The machine room also houses SSL Network I/Os: SDI-MADI and Network I/O: AES units on the Dante network, plus Dante services and control servers. SSL Network I/O SB 8:8 stageboxes are also used for flexible analogue I/O.

Canal Factory uses the SSL L500 consoles for a music pre-mix facility. The L500’s audio input is from the stage via MADI, and the console feeds the main Dante network.

Canal Factory houses French premium subscription channel Canal+ and free to air channel C8.